Helix Vol 4: armagoddnmotherfkingeddon
by onelildustbunni
Summary: They're living in a dark time...and nobody cares. Picks up where Helix Vol 3 left off. See author page for more in the Helix series. ::New X-men::Hellion/X-23::Julian Keller / Laura Kinney::
1. 1: Ominous 1:1 things to come

**Title: **Helix Volume 4: arma-godd**n-motherf**ckin-geddon 

**TITLE NOTE: **This volume is named 'arma-godd**n-motherf**ckin-geddon' after the kick-ass Marilyn Manson song. What better way could I describe what's going to happen here?

**Pairing: **Hellion / X-23

**Prequels: **Helix Volume 0: Year Zero, Helix Volume 1: the first try, Helix Volume 2: another version of the truth, Helix Volume 3: us 2 little gods _(see author page for these volumes)_

**Rating: **M (profanities, sexually suggestive content--nothing explicit or NC-17 though)

**Summary: **They're living in a dark time...and no body cares. This volume is _really_ going to step up the shit factor for the Kellers, so if you hate X-force, it may not be an option for you.  
However, it's still the family that you've read about before, and you know I can't resist a floofy, funny moment here and there. We all get our kicks where we can, right?

**A/N: **The first chapter of volume 4! Enjoy! And thanks for sticking around long enough to read it! And--PS--I've been waiting for a long time to start putting this story out. I'm a little excited!

* * *

**Helix volume 4: arma-godd**n-motherf**kin-geddon**

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Ominous" 1 Issue: 1/1 )**

 **Chapter 133 : things to come ******

* * *

**Prologue  
**

**Location Unknown**

"Sir?"

"Hmm?" He looked away from the window, his green eyes taking in the figure of his employee. She was pretty, attractive, soft curves, bouncy blond hair, long eyelashes. Bubbly and funny.

He felt nothing when he looked at her.

No, that wasn't right. What he felt when he looked at her…was hunger. Chemical hunger, the mitochondria of his cells preparing to feast.

_Not yet._

"They've taken the bait. They're assembled."

"Oh," he said. "Excellent. Thank you, Dharma."

"No problem, sir."

_Sir. Him. _Politically incorrect terms, but he supposed she was addressing his form, so he'd never bothered to correct her, nor anyone else. The time would come. And he had plenty of time, so he was  
in no particular hurry.

She left; he stood up, straightened his suit, and stepped into empty space. The office around him warped into a dark cavern, in the center of which was a long metal table.

At this table were seated some of the world's most powerful anti-mutant activists.

Bastion. White hair, facial hair, glowing eyes.

The Leper Queen. Bald, twisted, melted epidermis, hockey mask.

Senator Graydon Creed. Bright eyes.

Bolivar Trask. Graying hair, dull eyes.

Donald Pierce. Deceivingly human.

The Vicar of the Church of Humanity. Only her lips were visible from within the hood. Her face, too, was scarred.

There were also a few who were not as well known. People with connections that would be useful in helping to crack the protective out shell of the institute, allow him to reach his target.

Carl Denti. The X-Cutioner.

Kendall Green. FBI.

Dr. Tom Metellus.

And, at the very end of the table, some very important figures—people who had been involved from the very beginning.

Madelyn Pryor, the Red Queen.

Dr. Zander Rice, and his assistant, Kimura, her dark-skinned arms folded, a smile on her arrogant features.

Kingmaker. Also known as Wallace.

There were more, but they were secondary; many were high-ranking minions.

"Alright," he said, drawing their attention. Though he didn't _need_ to speak aloud; many of these individuals already could feel the gist of what he was about to say. Because he was in them, part  
of them, in minute amounts.

The reason they existed at all.

"Let's get started with this! And, I must say, I'm interested to see how you will respond. After having observed you for the past billion or so years."

Dr. Rice held up his hand. "You're mistaken. The oldest bipedal fossil dates back 3.5 _million_ years."

"What can I say? You're a persistent species, and one gets tired of trying after a while. I realized, around four million years ago, that I've been rather unintelligent in my management. I require  
sustenance—I was rapidly declining, having hunted the dinosaurs to extinction—and here was this stubborn fellow intent on _breeding._" He paused. "I've really just sat back and let you think you're  
holding the reins, for a while. I've dwindled to pathetic little masses. I'd be embarrassed if I indulged in such things."

"What things?" Bolivar Trask.

Madelyn Pryor looked straight at Him, her eyes bright, liquid blue.

"He means emotions," she said, her voice calm, pleasant, softly accentuated, like she was merely at a party, having tea with her friends. Instead of being present at such a council. Her dangling  
earrings swayed gently with each movement of her head, like they were emphasizing her words.

"He isn't human?" The Leper Queen, in her raspy voice, her head inclined to look at Him. Curiously. Despite the fact that she hated anything that appeared to be human but was _not._

"Heavens, no," he said, chuckling. "Hardly! But I'm going to do you a _big _favor. You see, you're all panicking, you think this little glimpse of evolution, this little, minor deviant trait, is going to kill you  
all. I can assure you that won't happen…at over 6.7 billion of you, you've officially outnumbered any creature that's ever existed. If anything, you're going to overwhelm Earth's carrying capacity…like  
I did. I've faded into the background now. I woke up from a deep slumber when some little archeologist went digging in a peat bog. " He paused.

"Enough about me. More about _you. _I'm in a spot…you're in a spot. You hate these 'mutants' so much, you spend your tiny lifespans trying to rid the earth of them—an impossible task. You need  
someone who's got the experience of successful genocide or two under their belt. Heck…I've committed _phylumocide._"

He looked at the gathered people.

"Why don't I just eat those pesky mutants?"

The reaction was startling, unexpected for people who had committed their lives to eradicating the mutant genome.

"Dear God," Bolivar Trask said.

The Leper Queen made a raspy noise of disapproval.

Many voices were raised in argument, at once.

He held up his hand. Now for his favorite part, or, rather, if he had a favorite part, it would be now, this moment.

"You needn't worry. It's only the mutants. Your precious species will be safe. And, after all, haven't you tried so hard to prove that mutants aren't _human?_" He paused to let this sink in. "It'll be just like rat poison."

Silence. They were listening again.

Of course they were. So predictable.

"All I'll need is your cooperation," he said.

Dr. Rice raised his hand again. "If you're so powerful…why do you need _us?_"

"I'm glad you asked that." He raised his hand. Time for a demonstration.

"Your help, assistance in my strategy, to crack the shell that houses my new host. The body I've grown to accommodate me…not like this rusty old death trap." He pulled on his ear; it came off, trailing  
a string of goop. People stared; he calmly replaced it. "As you can see, I'm at a disadvantage. This won't hold me for much longer. It's old, and its potential is limited, severely. I mean, hey, I _love_ the  
sense of humor it gives me, but…I think power is more important, don't you?" He grinned. "The host I chose…that I made…is one of the most powerful upcoming mutants on the planet…and will be the  
last. The body will withstand me—born and bred for it." He paused. "The host wasn't supposed to end up in such a well-protected institution…but mistakes _will_ happen." His eyes found Madelyne,  
who returned the gaze confidently.

"Yes," Bastion said.

"Fortunately, the host has connections that I never would have dreamed of. Connections that will make our little plan _so_ much easier. What might have taken _years_ before can now be accomplished in a matter of _days_."

Silence.

"So what is it you want us to do?" Rice asked. "Catch the host and inject a sample?"

"Oh, that won't be necessary," He said. "You don't even need to _detain _it. All I need you to do…is kill it. Nature well then takes its course. I've even provided several plans for you to do so. They're in the  
envelopes in front of each of you, along with a note detailing the little private rewards you will receive for helping me."

Silence. Slight scuffling, as two people picked up the envelopes, more curious than the rest.

He held up a finger to stop them.

"Now, now. No peaking. First…ladies and gentlemen…are we in an agreement?"

Silence.

"Yes," Bastion said again.

* * *

**The Xavier Institute**

**Headmaster Scott Summers' Office**

Julian stared at the senior X-man.

"You can't be serious."

"Of course we are, dear," Emma Frost said from the side.

"Seeing as _you_ were so in earnest when you made the request, I'd feel wrong about myself if I didn't oblige you," Scott added.

"We were _drunk," _Julian said, exasperated.

"We _noticed,_" Scott said, smiling pleasantly. Laura had made quite a scene at the graduation ceremony, when she'd climbed onto the stage completely hammered, and ended a  
long and torturous display by vomiting on his shirt.

"Of course, that has nothing to do with this decision to honor your request," Emma said, her voice not reassuring. "We _did _ask everyone if they wished to select new codenames  
to go with their rankings—unlike _some _students, they weren't allowed a choice in their first ones."

"But we're fair, so we decided to give you a chance too," Scott said.

Julian looked down.

He was standing, in the Headmaster's office, having been summoned to discuss a little 'office matter', which turned out to be the approval of a request to change his and Laura's  
codenames, since they were newly graduated X-men.

Except they didn't remember such a request; and on further examination, he'd been even more horrified to discover that the request had been made during a blackout period—their  
grad night. A night of celebration, booze, and more booze.

* * *

"Woah. Guess I won't be hearing any more 'codenames on the field' crap from _you,_" said Laura, who had always been terrible at using codenames anyway. She had fashioned a variety of rude  
nicknames for him, of late 'Helen Keller' and 'Helium' being the most frequent.

"This isn't funny," Julian said, rubbing his face as he sat at their kitchen table.

"It kind of _is,_" Laura said, grinning.

"No, it isn't! I am _never _going live this one down!" Julian exhaled, hard. "And they're going to make me respond to it, too." He scrunched his face. "Emma Frost is a cold-hearted _bitch._"

"I wonder what our names are," Laura said. She still showed signs of amusement—when she'd found out, she'd laughed so hard she had trouble breathing, despite the fact that she'd been  
dealing with what felt like the world's worst hangover, plus two cranky toddlers.

She could only _imagine _what they had chosen while drunk.

Julian looked away sulkily.

His brother, James, shuffled into the kitchen, looking like a bird had set up nest in his hair. He blinked blearily through swollen eyes at the pair, reached up over the fridge, and snatched the  
box of cheerios, then shuffled back out. The two older residents stared after him; a few moments later, he reappeared and extracted the orange juice from the fridge.

"It lives!" Laura said as the boy drank straight from the carton. "And it contaminates my kitchen! _What the hell do you think you're doing?!" _

"I have a headache," James snapped in a whisper.

"Everyone does," Julian said. "The point is, _you_ shouldn't. I don't remember saying you could get into the booze, too."

"…" James didn't make comment, just looked at Julian, then pointedly at Laura.

"Do as he says and not as we do!" Laura offered.

"Why were you even _at_ the party?" Julian asked. "I distinctly remember it being for us graduate types, not freshmen."

"Mindee invited me," James mumbled. "Look, I don't feel like explaining why I was present at a party to two people who got so drunk they blew their own grad ceremony."

"You were there too?!" Laura squeaked, alarmed.

"I was," James said. "I can't believe I didn't bring my fucking camera. I was going to put that on fail blog."

"…" Julian was livid. "What the hell where you even doing there?!" he asked defensively.

"I was under the impression that we were related," James said. "and that it's kind of something relatives _do. _I sure as hell didn't wanna go…but I got invited by, like, fourteen people, and  
then Logan dragged me there on my ass and practically propped open my eyelids. I wish I'd have known it was going to be so entertaining…I wouldn't have fought it so hard then." He  
grinned meanly at them.

"Oh my _god_," Julian said, mortified. He didn't quite remember what the ceremony had involved, but it sounded worse by the minute. "We've got to stop drinking."

Laura sucked her tongue and looked at a few empty bottles lining the windowsill.

* * *

"New costumes!" Cessily said, excited. "We _finally_ get new costumes! We're not gonna be the candy-stripers anymore!"

"We never _were,_" Julian said, annoyed.

"Nate thought we were firemen," Laura said. "This thing is seriously two sizes too small for me…do you know _how_ many times I've had to mend the seat?"

"Heh," Nori said. "I never minded my costume much."

"Because yours is halfway _decent,_" Laura mumbled.

They were standing around the mission room table, staring at a costume-template, lying on the surface like a deflated balloon. It was black, shiny, with yellow, molded  
accessories, and covered in X's, on the kneepads and the belt, and the backs of the gloves.

"Can I charge for ad space?" Laura asked. "I could be like a website! I'll paint my face with a giant X for like ten bucks a month."

"There's plenty of room on your ass, too," Julian pointed out.

"!" Laura glared at him. "_Fuck you!" _

"Children, please." Sofia said, sounding tired. "Ms. Frost said we can customize the outfit with cuts, and layers, but we cannot add or colors, or remove symbols. Apparently the costumes are bullet-proof."

"Let me guess, I'm going to be the one to test that out," Laura said, folding her arms. "Can you, um, fire-proof it too?"

"She's so full of alcohol, she catches fire if someone lights a match nearby," Santo said, grinning.

"OHO!" Josh high-fived him. "That was _awesome, _dude."

"Let's get this over with," Julian said. Everyone grabbed a sheet of paper and started scribbling what they wanted, knowing better than to say they didn't care. Everyone was afraid of what the  
results would be if they did that. They'd _seen _the original X-men costumes—horrifying outer-underwear spandex costumes that caused uncomfortable wedgies—and there was no guaranteeing  
that wouldn't suddenly make a comeback.

Julian leaned over and stared at Laura's drawing. "I _highly_ doubt they're going to let you have nipple tassels," he said.

"Oh, this wasn't for me!" Laura said in a cheerful voice. "I thought I'd be nice and do yours for you."

"…" Julian snatched the dangerous piece of paper from her hands, tore it apart into strips, and crumbled them violently. "Concentrate!" he snapped.

"Fine…_Adolf,_" Laura said, rolling her eyes as she took a new sheet.

* * *

"After much debate, Scott and I have decided on the hierarchy of the new team," Emma said, leaning over the table, addressing the seated New X-men. Several days had passed, and now  
they were all dressed in their new uniforms.

Julian's sported more armor than his last had offered, including neck protection (a sort of high collar); he'd had to fight the suggestion that he be equipped with a helmet. He did, however,  
cave in on a set of sleek Polaroid goggles; so far they'd remained perched on top of his head.

Laura's was now the proper size, and not as confining as the previous corset had been. She had a tank top, a utility belt, pants and a jacket; her gloves and boots had proper steel-lined  
passages for her claws to eject through, and had replaceable padding to catch the blood from her skin.

Nori's was somewhat similar, sans jacket, and with her gauntlets instead of gloves. She, too, had opted for a pair of goggles, faced with similar problems of wind resistance to her powers.

Cessily, Sofia, and Laurie had taken three outfits that were almost identical in base form; sleeveless one-piece outfits, with belts. Sofia's had a long, flowing belt (apparently it worked like a  
kite tail, and helped her balance); Cessily's entire uniform was actually made of special mercury that had been altered to appear to match her teammates' uniforms; and Laurie had a jacket  
and a high neck to hers.

Sooraya's outfit had not changed.

Santo was shirtless, his outfit similar to that of Colossus.

The other boys, for the most part, had chosen gear that would cover as much of their bodies as possible, except for Josh, who had copied the girls, with a sleeveless tunic, and for Kevin, of  
course; he had much the same outfit as before, except coordinated with similar boots and gloves to those of his teammates. The material of his costume was more comfortable, and carefully  
monitored by computer chips; Dr. McCoy had told the boy he was working on a version of the costume that would have power-dampening fields, and allow him some aspects of touch.

Now, everyone tensed slightly. Julian had been on edge for days, waiting for this moment (Laura had several arguments with him, and tried to keep him busy with household chores so he  
would quit sitting on the couch, brooding). He'd been terrified that he'd messed up his chances of leadership, with the scene they'd made at the graduation ceremony.

"The field days of last year were judged together…yet gauged separately," Emma said. "Much effort was put into ensuring the outcome would be fair, yet be the most beneficial to the  
team. We have chosen Julian to lead."

He relaxed. Sofia looked as if she had been expecting this, and smiled at him.

"Second-in-command will be Laura."

Sofia's expression changed like a traffic light. She now looked taken back. "But—"

Emma held up her hand. "Josh, you will be the team medic; David, you will be intel and information gathering."

"So the rest of us are just cannon fodder!" Nori burst angrily. "I like how it's all _Hellions _in charge of things!"

"I don't want to—" Laura began.

"No. You should. You are better than I am," Sofia said, but she didn't meet her eyes. There was an edge to her voice.

Emma paused, and smiled at her students. "I am so proud of you all! Even despite some recent set-backs." She paused, her eyes on Laura. "Now…several days ago, we allowed you the options  
of changing your field names…in recognition of your transition to X-men."

"Ms. Frost—" Julian pleaded.

Emma held up her hand, and began to read from a paper in front of her.

"The changes will be as follows: Prodigy would now like to be known as _Merge._ Wallflower will be called _Aura. _Wither has changed his name to _Reaver_—here I will pause to note that the name  
has no bearing towards the group of the same name_. _Wind dancer will now be known as _Tempest._" Emma paused, and Julian closed his eyes, _knowing _what was coming.

"Hellion will, from this moment on, be referred to as _godslayer007,_" Emma said, her voice even.

The table erupted. Julian turned red like a traffic light and covered his face with his hands. It was worse than he had thought.

Emma held up her hand. "X-23 has changed her name to _superMILF__." _

This fueled the laughter. Emma allowed herself a slight smile. "Perhaps, my darlings, you will learn the art of sobriety."

Julian folded his arms. "If you guys don't stop laughing…I'll kill you," he warned.

"No worries, man. I wouldn't wanna mess with a guy called _godslayer,_" Josh grinned.

* * *

"Julian…a word," Scott said, as he was about to leave. The man had seemed to linger, waiting till Emma Frost was gone.

Still upset about the naming issue, Julian scowled, but obliged. He watched his headmaster—rather, now, his superior—as he folded his arms.

"You report to me, now," Scott said. "Do you understand?"

"I've _always_ reported to you," Julian said.

"It's a simple yes-or-no question."

"…yes," Julian said.

"Good." Scott surveyed him for a moment longer. "We're restarting the squads, for the next term. In September. There will be a new class of New Mutants, and Hellions."

Julian raised his eyebrows. "Huh, didn't think about that. Going to be weird, watching some new kids prance around wearing my hand-me-downs."

Scott grinned. "I want your brother to try out."

"…" Julian stared at him. "Absolutely _not! _I—"

Scott held up his hand. "Trust me…it'll be good for the kid. I've _watched _him, he sometimes snuck up here to watch you guys work. He looks up to you, but I don't think either of you  
can see it. I know a bit about little brothers and broken homes, Julian…he needs something to do."

Julian considered. James was a pain in his ass; always prepared to be as big of a drag as possible, and he didn't do _anything _besides school. He didn't have friends, he just sat in front  
of the TV, or on his computer, staring blankly at the screen. He knew that couldn't be healthy.

"Well…how do I know you're going to keep him _safe_? A lot of shit went on during my time at this school, and I dunno if I'd feel right about letting him go through it too," Julian said.

"Because _you'll_ keep him safe," Scott said. "One of the things I entrust my teams with is school safety. You and your friends have a penchant for finding trouble in this place. If you can  
trust yourself, he should be just fine."

Julian grimaced. "I dunno."

"Think on it." Scott paused. "And your kids—"

"They are _not_ going on a squad," Julian snapped automatically.

"They're two years old. Of _course_ they aren't." Scott grinned. "Emma offered to tutor them and watch them sometimes, if you'd like a bit of free time."

"Oh." Julian was relieved. "Sounds like a plan."

Scott patted his shoulder. "You're a good kid, godslayer."

"…" Julian hung his head.


	2. 2: 1:1 tao godslayer & superMILF

**A/N: **Ahaha. The name 'godslayer007' came from some jerk's online handle. He was apparently in a video game my guy was playing. We both laughed our asses off, it was priceless.  
The title for this story comes from a song by Marilyn Manson. I'm sure he's not everyone's taste, but it pretty much describes the direction of the story. It's 'Armageddon' with a bunch of swears  
tossed in (Armagoddamnmotherfuckingeddon). It looks cooler with the asterisks but bleeps stars out...not sure why. Anyways I didn't want to put tons of swearing up at the top of page 1  
of the story just in case, lol.

Enjoy and ty for reviews!

And PS: SuperMILF is just my own creation, based on what drunk Laura would like to be called.

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "..." 2 Issue: 1/1 )**

 **Chapter 132 : the adventures of godslayer and superMILF ******

* * *

"This _blows. _We've been X-men for a week, and _nothing's_ happened," Nori grumbled to Laura. They were standing behind Scott, Emma, and Professor Xavier, in a press  
conference, dressed in their uniforms; Julian was also present.

"Maybe it's off-season for the bad guys," Laura whispered back. "Hey! I know! I'll take off and rob something, and you guys can come arrest me."

"Girls…be quiet," Julian hissed, as the pair cackled with silent laughter. "This is really important, okay?"

"Fuck **_you_**," Laura said, accidentally out loud. Her voice caught the microphone and echoed through the speakers, magnified about ten times.

Silence. The reporters stared at her; the Professor paused in his speech and turned around in his wheelchair to look at her.

"Ah-heh," Laura said, her eyes wide. "That wasn't for you…sir."

"I should hope not," the Professor said.

"Keep it _down,_" Scott scolded. "You're here to be seen and not heard. Emma?"

Emma sighed and tilted her head, erasing the past fifteen seconds from the reporters' minds. _**Done. It is rather embarrassing, having to do this every few minutes. This is  
supposed to be a **_**live **_**press conference….yet I feel as though I am editing a film. **_

Julian tried not to glare at Laura (who had not been at fault for the other interruptions; still, once was enough).

**…**

"Laura, I swear to god…sometimes you piss me off so much," Julian fumed as they headed home. "How _hard_ is it to stay _quiet_ for twenty minutes? Seriously?"

"I don't know how I managed five," Laura said. "Be glad I didn't speak back to the reporters. I almost declared my support to the one who asked about proposed mandatory birth-control bill."

She grinned. "I wanted to ask if they accept paypal."

"These are _serious_ matters, Laura," Julian said angrily. "You shouldn't make fun of them. If this thing _really_ comes around, you'll be singing a different tune." He opened the door, and out  
sprung the Shrimps, like wildly excited dogs. They each grabbed one of his knees and began to babble, loudly.

"Holy—one at a time—" Julian said, suddenly distracted. "Why the heck are they _naked?_"

"—an Mr. Mum wouldn' lemme have—"

"—but _Nate_ said—"

"—an' it jus' blew up all on iz' own—"

"—Joo, I _twied_ to say no—"

"—wen _**BANG!**_ an lotsa colors—"

"—but he wouldn' listen an he—"

"—an Mr. Mum made a funny noise—"

"—I fink Mr. Mum is angwy—"

"—I sweah it wasn' me—"

Laura stared at the Shrimps. "They blew something up," she said, in an accusatory tone. She peered into the house and gave it an experimental sniff; her nose confirmed it: the  
scent of _burnt. _It seemed empty, but she could hear Logan in the bedroom, now moving towards the door, having heard _her _in turn.

"What the—" Julian exclaimed as Logan came into view, covered head-to-toe in soot, his hair frizzled.

"Don't really wanna talk about it, but that demon-child set the bathroom on fire," Logan said gruffly.

"…" Julian's expression was one of frozen horror.

Laura's eyebrows drew together. "How—"

"They got into yer ice cream. I don't know what the hell you guys are thinkin', keepin' a whole _pail_ in yer freezer with these things around. They went on a sugar binge and when I found the boy  
he was _pink, _and sticky." He paused. "I had to wash him."

Laura's nose twitched. "You tried to give them a _bath?_"

Logan nodded. "Someone failed to mention to me that it's like committin' suicide."

"I…didn't think it'd be necessary," Julian said.

"Well, it was." Logan paused. "I put _him_ in first, then ran after his sister…lil bugger got out meanwhile, and I dunno how, or why, but I couldn't smell him. Then the girl started escapin'." Logan inhaled  
through his nose, a raspy sound due to the soot. "She jumped over my shoulder…an' _he_ crept up behind me, and threw yer electric razor in the bathtub."

"Oh my—" Laura.

"While I was elbow-deep, too," Logan growled. "Do you know _how_ painful it is to be electrocuted when yer skeleton is covered in _metal?_"

"…we're sorry?" Julian said. It sounded inadequate.

"So the curtains caught fire when my hair lit up," Logan said, matter-of-factly. "I been around some, but I never seen a fire happen in a bathtub before. Quite somethin'. I kinda overreacted and jammed  
my claws into the water pipe. So it's a lil busted up in there, at the moment." He paused.

The young parents stared at him.

Logan rubbed his hair; some strands fell out. "I'm gonna go home…scrub this off…I might come 'round tomorrow and help ya fix it, if I've calmed down enough by then. I can barely look at the kid right now  
without wantin' to strangle him."

Nate peered up at Logan from behind Julian's knee.

"And fer godssakes, put some clothes on 'im," Logan snarled, grabbing his coat from the peg and stalking out in a huff.

Julian opened his mouth, changed his mind, closed it, then looked at Laura. "Think they'll let me sponsor that bill?"

**…**

"This place _**sucks**__!" _James yelled suddenly, from the bathroom, startling Julian and Laura, who had fallen asleep on the sofa.

"Whatsit—" Laura rubbed one eye.

James stomped into the living room. "_Why_ is the bathroom blown up?!"

"You caught us. We had wild sex in the shower," Julian said, yawning. "Go to the school if you need to clean up."

"HAH! I _wish!_" Laura said.

"You do, huh?" Julian, stroking her hair idly.

"…I _hate_ this place," James said. "We're _rich. _Why are we living like we're in the bottom tax bracket?! Our _employees _have better homes than this!"

"I'm not buying a new house because we had a bathtub fire, okay? New shit isn't going to help…you guys just need to learn _how_ to use it properly." Julian said, glancing down at Laura.

"I had _nothing_ to do with it, thank you very much," Laura said.

"ARRRGH!" James sounded frustrated; he hated how his brother and _her_ always changed the subject and began arguing with each other, instead of answering his rather aggressive  
questions. Or answered him sarcastically.

It was like living with crazy people.

"Give me _my_ share now, then, and let me get my _own_ place," James said, trying to remain calm. "Then you guys can keep on doing whatever the hell it is you do that results in this crap."

"James…you're sixteen. I think you'd be ten times worse. And it wasn't us…Logan had a little accident while he was watching the Shrimps."

"…" James turned away in disgust, returned to his room, and slammed the door.

"You know…Scott mentioned to me today that they're starting up the Squads again, this September," Julian said, still stroking Laura's hair.

"My Shrimps are _NOT—_"

"No, you idiot. Jim. He's been invited to be on a Squad, if I approve it."

Laura sat up. "That means he would leave the house, right?"

"Hell no," Julian said, glaring at her. "He's _staying, _and stop looking for chances to dump him, okay?"

"I _should_ invite Megan," Laura said venomously. "Don't lie and say you'd be fine with it. I could smell the adrenaline in your body every time you were in the same room with us."

"Because you're crazy," Julian said. "And she's crazy. Put two and two together…I wasn't sure the school was going to stay intact."

"Ah-heh." Laura grinned. "It's been a long time since I've gotten you, hasn't it?"

Julian raised his eyebrow. "I wouldn't say that. You've been too busy making an ass of yourself to worry about me."

"Shut up," Laura said.

He ruffled her hair, grinning meanly.

**…**

Laura knocked on Logan's door with her boot, holding Nate's and Rachel's hands tightly in hers. Emma had requested all New X-men to meet her immediately, and Julian had  
had to leave even earlier, being in-charge of the team.

"LOGAN!" Laura shouted.

No answer.

She suddenly realized she didn't hear him there, which was odd, as it was the evening; usually Logan was around, if the team wasn't off to god-knows-where.

Sighing, Laura pulled the Shrimps along with her towards the ready room, thinking that now would be a prime chance to use that offer for babysitting that Emma had apparently made.

Entering the room, she saw that everyone was sitting around the table, with grim expressions. Julian was watching Emma intently, his arms folded; it was odd to observe his reaction  
when she didn't know what had caused it.

"This group of Reavers is known to be extremists," Emma said. "It is entirely possible that they were directly in contact with Donald Pierce and _what on earth are those children doing here?_"

Everyone's foreheads wrinkled; then they saw that Emma was staring over their heads, and most people turned to look at Laura, who grinned guiltily.

"Logan's out," she said. "I thought you might watch them, Emma."

Silence. Ms. Frost pursed her lips. She had suddenly gone from senior X-man, the one in charge, the important figure relaying pertinent information—to potential babysitter.

"I suppose that will be alright," she said stiffly.

Emma hadn't thought the situation could possibly degrade more, but then it did.

Nate sucked his thumb and eyed her, then out his thumb popped, with a wet noise.

"Boobs!" he burst enthusiastically.

Julian covered his face in embarrassment.

"Good lord." Emma tried to sound as calm and patient as possible, amidst the concealed sounds of amusement from the table. "Please, be seated, and attempt to listen. I will convene with you after."

**…**

"You just _had _to bring them in while she was talking, didn't you?" Julian asked, exasperated.

"How was I supposed to know! I didn't want to miss any details!" Laura said.

"For the love of god, your power is _enhanced _hearing, and the door was _open. _Is it that hard to wait outside?"

"Apparently," Laura said. "I'm not the one who taught him that word anyway."

In addition to his earlier comment (and a tiny monologue in which Nate had informed the table about how his father liked boobs too), Nate had chosen that night to make his debut to the F-word. It  
would have been amusing if not so mortifying. Emma had paused, for effect, after giving them a very serious order, and Nate had used the silence as an opportunity to tell Emma to do something  
very rude he'd once overheard Julian say.

"Dude—are you _mad_ at her?" Josh asked, overhearing the conversation taking place between the two parents, who had paused before boarding the X-wing.

"Kinda." Julian folded his arms.

"That was the best thing ever! Can I pay you guys to bring them again?" Josh asked, grinning. "They're like the only ones in this school who are immune to Emma's queen bee act!"

"Shut up and get in the jet, _Elixir,_" Julian snapped.

Josh saluted. "Whatever you say…_godslayer_."

"Grr." Julian followed him into the jet.

**…**

"This is lame, Keller. My powers are _not_ made for arresting," Laura said.

Julian kept his eyes focused on the horizon. "I was under the impression that you knew how to punch stuff."

"There is no problem you can't punch your way out of," Laura agreed.

"Jesus."

"I'm pretty sure I could've fixed his problem with a few punches, too," Laura said pleasantly. "That reminds me…who would you pick to be on your side in a bar fight?"

"Hmm," Julian said.

"Colossus!" Josh shouted from the back.

"No, dude! Wolverine!" Santo.

"Probably you," Julian said to Laura. "Or Logan, he seems to know what he's doing."

"I can't believe nobody said Chuck Norris," Laura said.

"_Dude!" _Santo shouted. "Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door!"

"_I _heard he's the reason Waldo is hiding," Josh said, grinning.

"I was pretty sure we were gonna have to fight Chuck Norris for the last field day," Julian said. "That's why I talked Summers down."

The rest of the flight was spent inventing jokes.


	3. 3: Skeletons in the Closet 1:2 skeletons

**A/N: **Thanks for reviews! Sorry for slow updating...a lot going on. Promise I'll never forget about my stories completely, there's always an update coming even if it takes a while! :-)

* * *

**  
( Volume: 4 Arc: "skeletons in the closet" 3 Issue: 1/2 )**

**Chapter 135 : skeletons**

* * *

"Logan _still_ isn't back," Laura said, the door slamming behind her.

"Weird." Julian continued to flick channels; he was watching TV, his usual occupation of spare time these days.

"This means no baby-sitter, Keller," Laura said.

Julian looked now. "Where the hell could he be? Did you _ask_ around?"

"I did." Laura sucked her tongue. "I asked Kurt, and Piotr. Neither had the foggiest idea of where the hell he could be."

"And he didn't say anything to you? Even a hint?"

"No."

Julian paused. "Since when are you on first-name terms with Nightcrawler and Colossus?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Logan took me out drinking with them a couple times. I beat them at pool once, and I let them off their bets."

"…" Julian was speechless.

"Little tip—don't go out drinking with LeBeau," Laura added. "That one gropes when he's drunk. Our claws popping weren't the only things being unfurled."

"I wasn't planning to," Julian said. "Thanks for that, though."

"Ah-heh." Laura unzipped her jacket. "I'm worried about Logan."

"He has a healing factor, an adamantium skeleton, and six blades in his hands that can cut through _anything. _Plus you can't sneak up on him. I don't understand how you could possibly be worried."

"I am," Laura said stubbornly. "I have a gut feeling. Logan's been doing it again. He got better there, for a while…last year, when I got him all wrapped up in the Shrimps. But he started slipping again,  
a few weeks ago." She ran a hand through her hair. "I broke his lock and found tons of booze bottles."

"Whoa, whoa. You _broke _into his _place?_"

"Yeah, so? I'm _worried!_"

"First of all, that's illegal," Julian said. "Second, so what if he has booze? That might be from one night, knowing _you_, Ms. Projectile-Vomit."

Laura sighed. "Keller…there were bottles of rubbing alcohol in there."

Julian stared at her. "…"

"We only drink _that_ when we're dead serious about getting drunk. It's 100 percent pure alcohol, and that will fuck a healer up like nothing else. Tastes like bat diarrhea and burns the whole way  
down, but when you're desperate—"

"Jesus," Julian said. "Maybe you should tell Scott and Emma?"

"No way! I'm not a tattle-tale!" Laura said.

"What are you going to do, then?" Julian asked.

She sighed. "Wait, I guess. What else _can _I do?"

**…**

_**Hellion. **_

Julian snapped awake and sat up in bed, disturbed. Someone had just spoken loudly in his mind.

Beside him, Laura snored on, laying on her stomach, her foot twitching in her sleep. He glanced at her, trying to calm his racing heart.

_**Good, you're awake. **_It was Frost.

"What—"

_**Don't respond. Don't wake Laura. I want you to come, very quietly, to the mansion, with your gear. Dress in the locker room. You are coming with Scott and I on a pertinent mission.**_

_**We require your abilities. **_

**…**

"Why can't I tell Laura?" Julian asked, confused. He was now waiting by the X-wing, in his uniform, sleepy and distressed.

"Because she will insist on coming," Emma said. "And she should _not_ be present. This…the less you know, the better, but this involves Logan. He is not in a state she should bear witness to at the  
moment, and he may try to harm anyone in his vicinity." Emma paused. "You are coming to restrain him, should I not be sufficient. If this is indeed a berserker rage, then I will not be able to reach  
him telepathically, and you are the only one in this school that would be able to hold him at bay."

Julian was silent. _Laura was right. _

**…**

"Where are we?" Julian asked, having dozed off, and awoken to Cyclops shaking his shoulder.

"Vietnam," Scott said. "Hurry. There are reports of civilian casualties."

Julian hurried to follow his superior, and complied with the request to levitate them to a field of grass. In the distance were flashes of metal, in the sunset. _Sun. _He blinked stupidly; in his mind, it was  
still 3 AM, and he had just woken up.

Here, thanks to the speedy maneuvers of the X-wing, it was _8_ _PM. _

"HELLION!" Scott shouted, running towards the commotion in the center of the field. "Grab him!"

Julian blinked. And only now did he realize he wasn't wearing his contacts. Now, when he was being relied on to pick up his maniacal, berserking father-in-law at 3 in the morning…this had to be a bad dream.

"_**HELLION!**_"

"NOT THAT ONE!" Scott shouted, as a figure flew into the air. Julian grimaced and dropped the person unceremoniously; there was a loud, feral roar, and a smaller figure flew towards them.

"Uh—" Julian could now see Logan, perfectly fine, and realized maybe he was getting a little _too _close.

"Get to cover!" someone shouted. "You're now his primary target, son!"

"PICK HIM UP!" Scott ordered.

Julian listened to neither; he raised his arm and shielded himself at the last moment, just as a pair of claws sailed towards his face. Logan was sent flying backwards; he snarled as he skidded  
along the grass, raising a curl of turf in his wake. He was up again, in the blink of an eye.

"Is this about the bathtub?!" Julian asked, uncertain, as Logan circled him, cutting him off from his superiors. He didn't want to hurt Laura's 'father'.

"I swear, I'm sorry! I had a talk with Nate and he—"

"_**RAAAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLL!!!" **_Logan sprung, and Julian barely dodged. He could see Logan's eyes now; they were completely bloodshot.

He was gone.

"Holy—" the tips of Logan's claws caught his underarm and sent curls of blood into the air. His blood, as well as the Shrimps'. Logan's nostrils flared slightly.

_**STOP!**_

Everyone bent over double, clasping their ears, even though the sound was in their mind. Pure, raw pain zapped through every nerve in Julian's body.

"I had a _dream, _Logan, what I believe to be a precognitive vision," Emma said, approaching the smaller man slowly. "In it, I saw someone very important to you. You must put aside your selfish  
quest for revenge, if you care about that someone enough."

"They…used me…" Logan groaned.

"Yes," Emma said. "_'_They'did. And now 'they' are using your son."

"W-what?" Logan turned pale. "Where is he?"

Julian stared. _Son? _Oh, god.

"I don't know. I only saw him in a vision," Emma said.

"_**WHERE IS HE?!!" **_Logan screamed. Julian had seen _this_ reaction before, in Laura. The strange nurturing instinct.

"I _don't_ know," Emma repeated, her voice steely. "We will look into it."

Beside them, Captain America wobbled, then collapsed, in a heap, making choking noises. Julian blinked.

"Uh…"

"I'm not waiting on you," Logan said. He looked at Julian. "Sorry, kid, got a lil carried away there. Did I get ya?"

"It's just a flesh wound," Julian said, realizing he hadn't even noticed the fact that his arm was open and soaking blood down his side. "I think that guy over there needs help more than  
I do. Isn't that Captain America?"

"Yeah." Logan turned, retracting his claws; Scott touched Julian on the shoulder. "Time to go. We'll patch you up on the X-wing. If you could get us back…"

"…" Julian looked back at the man choking on the ground. "Let me get this straight. You woke me up—at three am—to come to _Vietnam, _for a period of two minutes, so I could get hurt? And then  
you walk away, leaving someone _choking_ on his own _blood_? Sir, excuse me, but what the fuck?"

"Well, we know where young Nathan learned that word, now," Emma said airily. "No, we are not going to _leave _him. It was assumed that, since you are responsible for transporting us, you  
would automatically bring him as well."

"…" Julian rubbed his neck, embarrassed.

"Yes, 3 AM, I know," Scott said, his tone kinder. "Believe me, I know. I sleep with a psychic…_everything _seems to happen at 3 AM."

"_Scott!_" Emma rebuked, sounding cross.

**…**

Julian placed his hand on the door handle and turned it, very slowly, then opened the door. So far so good—he was being quiet.

"_**AHHHHH!**_"

Laura was standing by the door, her arms folded. "Where the _hell_ were you?"

Julian paused. He wasn't used to keeping things from her—and normally he wouldn't—but if he told her now, she'd steal the X-wing and go hunting for Logan. He did _not _want her in the  
middle of whatever was going on.

"Nothing, beautiful," he said, touching her elbow.

"It's four AM, and you're sneaking back into the house, wearing your uniform and smelling like rice patties. That is sure as fuck not 'nothing'!"

"You're totally off your game. I was fighting zombie robots from the future," he said, brushing past her and heading towards their bedroom. He headed straight for the cribs, knowing Laura  
would have to be silent beside them, or risk waking the softly, steadily breathing Shrimps (something that was so easy to do and something that Laura avoided like the plague).

"JULIAN," Laura hissed from the living room. "You get back in here and take this like a man!"

He happily ignored her, too tired to care as he unzipped his uniform—_it had a front zip, thank god—_stumbled out of his boots, and sunk headlong into bed. He was asleep before his head hit  
the pillow, and he continued to do so, even through the thirty-minute period in which Laura attempted to rouse him (using a pillow, her hand, and even the paperback book she'd been reading).

**…**

Laura was very displeased over his refusal to describe the mission to her, and made her displeasure known throughout the week that followed, sabotaging his laundry (throwing in a still-packaged  
pair of red socks in with his whites), hiding the remote constantly, and adding weird, unpleasant spices to his meals, amongst other petty methods of revenge.

The next Monday, Laura was making lunch—sandwiches, using an E-Z-squirt bottle of mayonnaise, sticking out her tongue as she squeezed the spread onto a piece of bread—when the door opened.

Laura looked up, and her mouth opened. It was _Logan. _

"Kid, ya busy?" he asked. Something was up. His face looked…different. Full of excitement, like he was lit from within after being extinguished for a long time.

Laura continued to squeeze as Logan pulled someone in, by their arm. _His arm._

A young man—perhaps a few years older than herself—with a striking Mohawk and prominent tattoos all over his arms, left bare by his wife beater. He watched her coolly, his nose in the air.

"I got someone to introduce to you," Logan said, oblivious.

Laura stiffened. No.

_Squeeze! _The mayonnaise container emptied itself onto the piece of bread, but Laura didn't notice, just staring at the boy with narrowed eyes, her nose twitching.

She _hated_ him.

"This is Daken," Logan said. "My son. I guess yer, uh, son too. But I thought he's a bit more like yer brother. You guys are about the same age so…"

Laura said nothing.

"Daken, this is Laura," Logan said, his hand on the boy's shoulder. "She's had a hard go of it too. She's my clone…and, well, let's say the fact that her name was X-23 should cover it. She's got the  
claws, too…an' she heals…" Logan finally seemed to notice that no one had said anything.

James peered around the corner, having heard voices, then listened in to the conversation. "What! He is _not_ living here, too!"

"Nobody said he was," Logan grunted. "Shut up, Keller. Oh, Daken, that's her man's brother…I think Julian's out with the team or somethin'. They have two kids together, their names are  
Nate and Rachel, but everyone calls 'em the Shrimps."

"I see." Daken's first words. His voice was on the nasally side; but it was cold, even, precise.

Mocking.

"Well…" Logan's fingers tightened on the boy's shoulder. "Let's get you settled in. I kin get you a room of yer own…figure you'd like the privacy."

"Yes," Daken said, still watching Laura.

The air seemed to buzz with tension; Laura felt like a magnet was pulling her claws to the surface of her knuckles.

"Hey, sorry about that, I—" Julian was at the door; he stopped, seeing Logan and the boy. "Er—"

"This is Daken," Logan said. "My son." He seemed proud of the word, although very weary; he had worked so hard to find him, ever since the first rumors of him had reached his ears. He'd almost  
given up, several times, yet here he was.

"Uh, nice to meet you," Julian said, extending his hand and feeling awkward, because he'd seen Logan on the field beforehand, breaking apart over this very being. This being who didn't look all that friendly.

His hand was ignored.

"This is Julian, you remember, I was tellin' you?" Logan said.

"Uh-huh," Daken said, eyeing Julian, who felt stupid. He lowered his hand.

"See ya, Laura," Logan said, leading Daken out.

Laura stared after them. Julian gazed at the piece of bread piled with almost an entire bottle of mayonnaise.

"I'm guessing you didn't like him?" he asked.

"No…this is _yours,_" Laura snapped. She flipped the opposing side on top, threw the bottle into the sink (it clattered loudly), then stomped into their bedroom and slammed the door very violently.

Julian turned to his brother with a questioning expression.

"What the hell you looking at _me_ for?!" James demanded.

"Well, since _you're _the empath, I was hoping you could clarify things for me a bit," Julian said. "You know, so when I go in that bedroom to face down the storm, I'd have a bit of background history."

"The fuck! I don't know squat about _shit!" _

"You were here," Julian pointed out.

James rolled his eyes. "All I saw was her dad walk in with a strange kid, say some shit I didn't really follow, and then _she_ went crazy and used a whole bottle of mayo on one piece of bread! That do it for you?"

"Major help, thanks," Julian said, annoyed. "I should start charging you _rent_, for all the use you are around here."


	4. 3: Skeletons itc 2:2 painful truths

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "skeletons in the closet" 3 Issue: 2/2 )**

**Chapter 136 : painful truths**

* * *

On the roof, where all their heart-to-heart discussions seemed to take place, a bottle of alcohol between them. Julian dangled his feet off the edge; Laura had her knees drawn up to her  
chest, and she gazed out into the night with half-lidded, dull eyes. He couldn't tell if she'd been crying or not, due to the damn healing factor; but he thought he'd heard sniffling.

"I just don't understand it," Laura said bitterly. "Most men…when they hit their midlife crisis, they go out and buy a sports car. Logan went out and got a _new kid. _Like, what the fuck, I'm not good enough?"

"Don't be stupid," Julian said. "He had him before you. Or at the same time. He didn't even _know_ about you till you were five, Laura. If you found out you had kids out there…wouldn't you look for them?"

"No!" Laura snapped, even though she knew this was true. "I'd pay attention to what I already have!"

"Yeah right," Julian said. "I think I know you a little better than _that. _You're already thinking about kids, other kids. You talk about it, sometimes, when you're drunk."

Laura looked down. "I can't—Julian, I tried _so _hard to make him happy—to make him proud—and still—" she burst into tears. "And now he drags in this…"

"Aw." Julian rubbed her shoulder and pulled her against his side, trying to understand what she was feeling.

"He's my first g-good memory," Laura sobbed bitterly. "Seeing him…in his r-ridiculous...spandex…suit…with the underwear on the outside…I'd never seen anything so c-colorful…" she paused, took a  
big swig of Everclear. "…I asked him what my m-mission was…I'll never forget what he said..."

Laura fell silent and stared ahead.

Julian waited for a minute. "What did he say?" he asked.

"He said…'To be normal'." Laura stared ahead. "I tried, so hard…my whole life, I built on that…trying to be normal. I think I failed. Obviously…I mean…" she hiccoughed and  
snorted. "…he went out and got another kid."

"You're doing just fine," Julian said.

"No I'm not!" Laura snapped. "I'm nowhere near what I should be! I teeter all over the place and I overreact and I drink too much…" she took another swig. "I'm not like the other kids here. I'll _never_ be  
like the other kids…I'll never be Cessily…or Nori…or Sofia." She looked away.

"You don't need to be!" Julian said, frustrated. "If you could go through all that…and not bat an eyelash…not be a bit traumatized…then there _would_ be something wrong with you."

Laura hiccoughed again. "But he went and got that kid…_Daken_."

"Because he couldn't _leave_ him, Laura," Julian said. "He was in a bad place…and he had to save him, like he saved _you._"

Laura fell silent for a while.

"That's were you went, that night, isn't it?" she asked.

Julian looked down. "I…they told me not to tell you. Logan wasn't…he wasn't all there, and there was some pretty weird stuff going on."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Laura asked.

"I was afraid you'd got out in the middle of it all, okay? Logan nearly killed _me._"

"…" Laura closed her eyes. "I have the Shrimps, too. I wouldn't leave them. No matter what, because I'm not like _some _people."

Julian knew she meant Logan.

"Look…just go along with stuff. I know you don't like his son…but it's not your life, okay? At the end of the day you can go home, and be with the Shrimps."

"And emo-kid, thanks to you," Laura added, her nose wrinkled.

"Hey, he's not that bad. Entertaining."

Laura sniffled.

"I guess," she said.

**…**

"I don't understand why we're firemen now! I thought we moved past that with the new costumes!" Laura snapped over the wind, struggling to zip up her uniform. They'd left the house, in a  
hurry at Emma's urgent summon; James had been assigned with the duty of watching the Shrimps for the first time since the situation was an emergency.

"We're not! It's a pyrokinetic!" Julian said as the stairs came into view. He slowed and dropped Laura carefully, then ran after her into the school.

The elevator took forever; Julian used his code (something that always made his chest puff up, so Laura let him do it); the door had barely opened to the sub-basement, and they were off  
again. Laura made the turn to the ready room, but Julian kept running; he skidded to a halt and joined her a few seconds later.

"Good," Scott said. "This is a serious situation. It's the same girl we tried to recruit before. Candace Burns, with powers of crematory-level—perhaps even hotter—pyrokinesis. There are some  
injured civilians—three dead—and S.H.I.E.L.D. is present. You're going to need to either convince her to come quietly, or use force to subdue her, tranquilize her, and bring her to the school,  
where she will be held in a containment unit."

Laura stared with wide eyes.

"You going to be alright?" Scott asked her.

She paused, then closed her eyes and nodded.

"Good. Get to the hangar, we're leaving in—"

"Hold it, Slim." Logan was suddenly present—and Daken. "We got an extra body to help ya out. Little trackin' power never hurt no one."

Scott looked at Logan, at Daken, then nodded. "Good. Daken, follow me—I'll give you a uniform, then we're leaving."

"-!-" Laura looked outraged. "What?! Just like that?! I trained for a _year and a half _to join this effing team, and I didn't even want to be on it!"

"He's combat-trained," Scott said. "He'll know what to do, won't you, Daken?" He gave the boy a friendly grin.

"Yes," Daken said, not returning the gesture.

"Yer damn right he'll know what to do," Logan said. "Half-pint's a chip off the old block."

Laura stiffened.

"Laura…" Julian put his hand on her shoulder. "Later, please."

Logan glanced at her; Daken also turned his head.

"Got a problem, darlin'?" Logan asked.

_Darling. _Logan had _never_ used this term with her—had never implied she was just another girl at the school. _She'd_ always been the 'half-pint', the copy of himself. The clone.

"Hardly," Laura said, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

Logan turned his back on her, patted Daken's shoulder, then left; Scott led the boy to the other room to retrieve a spare uniform; Laura stood, her hands clenching and  
unclenching, her face white with anger.

"C'mon…shit to do," Julian said, feeling bad. He'd seen the way Logan had reacted—pushing her to the side, suddenly treating Daken to the spotlight. She was right;  
there was more to this than saving an innocent, than being there for his kind.

This seemed involve Logan wanting a _son_, and not a cloned girl—a _daughter_.

"Yeah." Laura made fists stiffly, then followed him towards the hangar. "There's always _plenty_ of shit."

**…**

The flight went by quickly, with Scott piloting and Julian as the co-pilot, leaving Laura to sit in the back, fortunately far enough from Daken that she did not have to see  
him. Soon, however, that no longer mattered, for the moment.

"HOLY—" Julian looked out the windshield, as Scott skillfully tilted the X-wing down. All they could see, in the center of the city, was a great, smoking crater. It looked like a small  
atomic bomb had gone off. The perimeter of the crater was charred and melted; buildings hundreds of feet away were covered in soot.

"This is bad," Scott said.

"Why didn't the _senior _X-men take care of her?" Laura demanded, from behind. "She's completely psychotic!"

"We tried," Scott said, grimacing. "She…Emma says she flits in and out of the psychic network. At times, it's like her mind _disappears _entirely. We think it's some sort of secondary mutation."

"Like she _needs_ more," Nori grumbled.

Scott sighed. "Remember…get in, get out, fast, no fuss. Try not to catch on fire. If she gets you…Elixir, I want you to stay near Hellion or Surge at all times."

Julian noted that his new codename only seemed to apply when Emma was around, and understood, having the same strategies with Laura.

**…**

Daken followed Scott, still silent, although it was obvious he was full of opinions about the other X-men present.

"X is with me," Julian told Scott firmly.

The leader made no argument. "Groups of five. Inform me immediately if she is sighted." Scott paused. "Mercury, Elixir, Reaver—with Hellion. Go, now. Tempest—Merge, Icarus, Daken…"

His voice began to fade into the background as Julian led the smaller group away, his expression serious. "X, can you remember what she smells like?"

"Pretty much," Laura answered, her nose wrinkled. "It's going to be _hard_ to find her in here, though…it all smells the same. Like charcoal and cooked meat."

"_Eww,_" Cessily said, reaching out and taking Kevin's hand.

They moved for a while longer, their eyes shifting through the shimmering heat and burning wreckage.

"This is really weird," Julian said. "From what we found out on her before…she does it for _fun. _But they're always little, controlled fires…like she intentionally burns just one, or two  
buildings. She didn't even get soot on some walls…and then…remember how she was doing murals, Josh?"

"Yeah," Josh said. "She did these really intricate designs, with fire. It was awesome."

"_This_ is completely out of character for her, then," Julian said, gesturing around himself. "I mean—_look_ at it. It's a mess. It looks like a bomb went off…like she totally lost control of herself."

"I'm not surprised," Laura said sourly. "Let's not forget this is the asshole that set me on _fire, _okay? My gosh, you guys sound like you've got a crush on her!"

"I was trying to look for clues," Julian said calmly. "We're here to find her. She's hiding. Best way to find someone in hiding is try to figure out what's going through their mind, right?"

"WRONG!"

_Snkkt!_

The five New X-men whipped around, their eyes wide as they took in the sight of the girl that had burned Laura before—or, rather, a flame shaped in the outline of her, with bright white  
eyes and mouth, and flickering hair, white at the roots and blue near the tips (like a candle).

"Hi," she said, a puff of white flame emerging from her mouth. "I seem to have set myself on fire."

"We can see that," Julian said, his hand on Laura's shoulder, holding her back; her claws had popped upon hearing the girl's voice.

"It looked like so much fun, you decided to try it yourself?" Laura asked, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"Well, that and something's odd," Candace said. "Your friend is right…I didn't mean to do _this. _Such a waste of materials, no taste at all!"

"…" Laura's face contorted. "You set me on _fire, _you crazy bitch! I almost _died!_"

Candace blinked, the white of her eyes momentarily disappearing.

"Oh. I'd forgotten." She paused. "I was quite cross…here you were, spoiling all my fun by trespassing in my beautiful city. But, you seem to be just fine…I don't see _why_ you're complaining."

"You're insane, we get that," Julian said. "We're here to stop you from hurting anyone else, ever. Why a person like _you_ got such destructive powers, I have no idea…but I'm not going to  
stand here and let you kill anyone else—"

"I've never killed _anyone,_" Candace said, her eyes slightly whiter.

"You set me on _fire!_" Laura repeated. "I can't believe we're arguing about this!"

"I wanted to make an impression," Candace said. "Besides…you heal, and so does your golden friend here. Since you people wouldn't leave me alone, I thought a scare might help."

Laura stared at her.

"She got a brain infection," Julian said, also annoyed with the candid attitude. "You don't _do_ shit like that, whether they have healing powers or not. And you _have _killed, three people. Today. In  
addition to whatever else you've done."

Candace blinked again.

"…yes, well…I wasn't feeling quite well…I had an encounter in the days prior, with some very rude men. I was abducted, and they popped my neck with something unpleasant in a hypo. I went a  
bit dotty. I got away. Then…things are a little hazy, I kept flitting in and out of consciousness…I exploded, and woke up like this." She gestured to herself.

"Abducted?" Julian asked. "By who?"

"I haven't the foggiest," Candace said. "And now, I think I'm about to pass out. It's been nice speaking with you." Her eyes disappeared, a cloud of smoke rose into the air, and she tumbled  
to the ground, now made of regular flesh and bones like she'd been the first time they'd met; except now she was clean, and naked.

Each boy tilted his head slightly to take in the view. Laura reached out and whapped Julian on the back of his.

"Uhnf—" he rubbed his head and glared at her.

**…**

Scott's face remained neutral when they told him of the attack. Laura felt sure that he already knew something of this nature; perhaps had even suspected that it applied to the case of  
Candace; and she wondered if he hadn't allowed the girl to get in trouble, for the purpose of observing this new foe.

Aside from the other facts, of course.

The girl was loaded onto the stretcher, strapped in, and given a tranquilizer, despite the fact that she had accompanied them willingly. Laura agreed with this; she was not eager to get on  
board an aircraft with the girl.

"Well done," Scott said to Julian as they prepared to take off.

Julian grinned, pleased; Laura rolled her eyes. He hadn't even _done_ anything.

**…**

"Hang on guys," Scott said as the team headed for the locker rooms.

The group paused, with questioning expressions.

Scott shifted, folded his arms. His body language spoke of discomfort.

Laura's eyes narrowed.

"I need Dr. McCoy to do a quick, routine blood check on you. It's a policy after every mission, to ensure that no one picks up any strange viruses on the way."

_Lying._

Laura waited until the group had turned around and headed for the lab, Scott hovering over them like a mother hen, then reached out and grabbed her superior's sleeve, her eyes full of anger.

"_What, _exactly, did I just get exposed to?" she hissed.

Scott cleared his throat. "Nothing. It's routine."

"_Bull _shit!"

Julian paused, seeing Laura had stayed behind, then came back. "What's up?"

"We've been exposed to a deathly pathogen," Laura said, glaring at Scott. "This _asshole _thinks he's not going to tell me exactly what I'm bring back to the Shrimps…but I think  
a few minutes might help." _Snnkt._

"Laura, out of line!" Scott rebuked.

Julian put his hand on her shoulder. "Stop. Laura, put them back. _Now._"

She turned her glare to him momentarily, said nothing.

Scott sighed.

"Like I said, it's a precaution," he said suddenly. "I'm anal these days. There's a chance _she_ was infected, to bring back as a bomb to use inside the school. But…you said she escaped. Then she  
exploded; I think whatever damage that was going to happen _has_ happened, and she's literally burned anything she had out of her system."

"Bio warfare," Julian commented. "Boy, that's scary…thinking they've moved beyond picketing the gate."

"Mmm." Scott looked at Laura.

"What was it?" she demanded.

"I don't know." _Lying, again. _

"Bull shit, Scott! Tell me!"

"Laura—" Scott.

"I think we _do_ have a right to know," Julian said.

Scott paused.

"So far, it's consistent with some of the symptoms of the Legacy virus. But—"

Laura made a squeaking noise, vaguely similar to a mouse being trodden on. Both men glanced at her, disturbed that she could make such a sound, and Scott held up his hand, seeing  
she was about to panic.

"Don't. I told you, the worst is over. I wouldn't have sent you guys in if I thought it was _live _Legacy. I think this is some sort of new strain. The original was much slower…and nowhere near  
as violent. The attacks tended to build up over time." Scott raised his eyebrow. "There's also the fact that it was _injected. _Legacy is airborne, and safe to Humans—they could have simply  
held a rag soaked in some virus over her nose."

"True," Julian said.

"Besides…her powers involved mile nuclear fusion pyrokinesis. _Atomic level. _The injection seemed to trigger some sort of secondary mutation, and, like I said, the pathogen was completely  
burnt out of her system. _You_ know how thorough that kind of burning is, Laura."

Laura watched him doubtfully, but finally nodded. "Fine. But if you dare to have me take something home to the Shrimps, know I will happily slit your throat and fuck the hole that remains."

The men stared at her, disturbed.

"Um," Julian said.

"…" Scott's forehead wrinkled. "Point taken. Now go get your blood tests."

**…**

"Laura—hey, Laura, wait!" Logan called, chasing them down the hall to the front doors as they left the laboratory, with blood tests clean of Legacy virus.

She was tempted to ignore her mentor, but at the last moment she turned.

"What do you want?"

Logan paused.

"I need to ask a favor," he said.

Laura watched him with narrowed eyes. "Yes?"

"Daken," Logan said. "I want ya to help him fit in here."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I barely fit in myself." Laura turned away; Logan grabbed her by the shoulder. "Not done. You _do_ fit in…you've got yer group of friends. I know how  
kids can be—they won't get him. I need you to help him make some friends, so he don't feel left out."

Laura expression was cold. "I can't make people like him." She looked at Julian. "Come on, Keller, places to be that aren't _here._"

"…" Logan folded his arms. "You don't like Daken, do ya?"

"Logan," Laura said, her eyes flashing. "You didn't get anyone to let _me_ in when I came here," she said. "I had to 'fit in' all on my own."

"Daken's different," Logan said. "He—" He was about to explain some of the boy's up-to-recent circumstances, but Laura was hearing none of it; she brushed the man's hand off her  
shoulder, stomped down the hallway and closed the door behind herself. It made a very final, resounding clicking noise.

"…" Logan gazed at the closed door.

"She's upset about being replaced," Julian said quietly. "She feels like she's just an unwanted clone again."

"Grr." Logan rubbed his face with his hand. "What the hell was I supposed t' do? _Leave _Daken there? In that shithole?"

"No…" Julian sighed. He felt sorry for Logan, at this moment; he looked lost.

"Look, I'll talk to Cess and Sofia about making him feel a part of things. Laura's not the best welcome wagon ever."

Logan eyed the boy. "Thanks, Keller," he grunted. "I'd owe you one."

"One dad to another, right?" Julian asked. "I kind of owe you already for Nate's electrocuting you. Speaking of which, I had a heart-to-heart with him."

"And?" Logan looked vaguely amused.

"He cried, and he asked if he'd killed you. He doesn't seem to understand that dead people don't walk around after."

"Heh," Logan said. "You're a good kid, Keller."

"Thanks," Julian said, surprised. "I always thought you were of the opinion that I was a piece of crap, so that means a lot."

"I did, a long time ago," Logan grunted, folding his arms. "Pretty much until yer shotgun wedding. Still upset about missing that, by the way."

"Not much to miss," Julian said. "We bribed an old judge to do it on his lunch break. He was eating some weird sort of taco. Laura couldn't stand the smell and was holding the trash  
can 'just in case' while I was saying my vows. Someone let one rip, too, still not sure if it was her or the judge, but it happened during _her_ part and she busted a rib laughing when  
the smell hit. Wasn't all that reassuring to me."

"I see," Logan said, amused. "Yeah, I'm not upset anymore. Still…wish I'da been there for her…always felt bad fer that."

"I can get that," Julian said. "Well, I gotta go…she's probably halfway across the field, still ranting to me, and once she realizes I'm not there…"

"Yeah," Logan said, patting his shoulder. "See ya round."


	5. 4: First Strike 1:2 low blow

**A/N: **Dubble update!!! :-)

* * *

**  
( Volume: 4 Arc: first strike 4 Issue: 1/2 )**

**Chapter 137 : low blow**

* * *

"Joo," Nate said, having sidled up to his father's knee as he sat on the sofa, flipping through channels on the TV with a bored expression.

"What's up, dude?" Julian asked, still focused on the TV.

"What was you an' mum doin'?"

"Huh? When?" Julian changed from fashion to music to news, then found the WWF and set the remote down.

"Las' night," Nate said.

Julian froze. "Uh—I—" He searched, wildly, for an answer. They'd thought the Shrimps were safely asleep last night, and had gone for it, careful to be quiet. And, yet, here it was—he'd  
always _known _somehow this moment would be all his, and that Laura would be conveniently absent. She was, indeed, absent; out with Cessily for coffee.

"—she was choking," Julian said. "I was giving her mouth to mouth."

"Weeally?" Nate asked, his eyes wide.

Julian looked at the boy, and saw this, somehow, coming back to haunt him later, but he nodded. "Yup."

"Oh." Nate paused. "What was mum chokin' on?"

"Her tongue," Julian said, thinking, since he was lying anyway, he would embroider the facts. "You know how she says mean things sometimes? Well, it's because her tongue is mean. She  
can't control it…it totally gets away with her, sometimes. Ask her when she's in a good mood…she'll tell you all about it."

"Weeally?" Nate was buying every moment of it.

"Uh-huh." Julian's eyes returned to the TV.

"Joo?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Why can I wift thin's without touchin' thems?"

"You're a mutant," Julian said, ruffling the boy's hair. "Just like your old man."

"Oh." Nate paused. "I don't has an olds man."

"Sure you do."

"Weeally? Who?"

"Me." Julian flipped the channel again, restless.

"Oh. But you's not old!"

"It's a saying."

"Oh." Nate paused. "What's a sayin', Joo?"

"Something I use when I'm trying to tell you what something's like."

"Oh."

Julian thought Nate would leave, to play with his Lego, but then the boy raised his knee and forced himself up onto the sofa, beside him, obviously intending to stay and ask him more questions.

"Joo, what's a mootant?"

"Like you, and me, and mom. And Dr. McCoy."

"Oh." Nate looked puzzled. "Why 'm I a mootant?"

"Because you can lift stuff without touching it," Julian reminded him patiently.

"Oh."

Nate suddenly sat up straight; a few seconds later he ran to the door, as it clicked and opened, to reveal Laura, with a few shopping bags.

"MUM!" Nate said excitedly. "Why iz your tongue mean?"

_Oh, Christ. _Julian tried to keep staring at the TV, but he was aware that he had a guilty expression—and that Laura was gazing at him suspiciously.

"Because it's pierced," Laura said, sticking it out at the boy and bending over slightly so he could see. "Itz angry abou' id."

Nate gazed at the metal barbell. "Why?" he asked.

Laura withdrew her tongue. "Because elephants have flat feet, Nate," she said firmly.

"Oh."

Julian waited for the next question, but it never came. He finally turned and looked at Laura, incredulous. He'd _never_ gotten Nate to stop asking questions.

Had it really been that simple all the long?

"Rumor is I have a mean tongue," Laura said in explanation.

He rolled his eyes.

**…**

Laura leaned back in her chair, with folded arms, as she stared across the table at Daken, who stared right back. Their faces mirrored their hatred and distrust of one another; each was accentuated  
by identical looks of derisive amusement at the other's existence.

"A-hem," Julian said. "So we're going to talk over the last few missions…Cyclops wants us to put our brains together and look for clues about who the hell is doing this. So we can take them down."

There had been a death—a tragic, mutant death in the middle of Time's Square, just as the New X-men arrived. The gore had been quite spectacular; the beta-level mutants' insides were splattered  
across the great courtyard, along with a shockwave of energy that Julian had barely shielded them from. Luckily the energy had been electrical; Nori, with Cessily's help, had absorbed the overload,  
and no one had been injured, except the poor dead guy, as Laura put it.

That night, in bed, staring at the ceiling, Laura had felt a shift. The itch in her spine returning, telling her trouble—massive trouble—was underway. Unexplainably she felt as if the happy, golden period  
she'd been experiencing in her life had snuffed out. They weren't kids on the squad anymore.

She couldn't put her finger on it, why the event had triggered such a warning for her, instinct-wise. She'd seen _plenty _of gore. The things she'd done in her childhood, and had continued to do in her  
teenaged years, would stay with her a lifetime. Yet, seeing the man's ribs clatter against her boot had been a warning.

They were living in a dark time, and nobody cared.

Of course, staying up all night, reveling in this horrifying, fascinating thought, Laura was now grumpy. And now _Daken _was sitting across from her, his eyes mocking. _The things I've seen, and you haven't, _they  
seemed to say—but, _oh no, _he wouldn't even lower himself to actually tell her that.

Laura was annoyed by people who weren't straight up.

So she stared—glared—back, and thought nasty things. Didn't _Daken _mean _Dog _in Japanese? Yes, yes it did. _Son of a bitch, _she thought. _HAH! He looks just like one too, what an ugly fucker. Thinks he's got it made  
with his ridiculous hair…it looks like a mop…or a really bad toupee…is that __**glue?! **__HAHAHAHA!_

Julian barely needed to hear Laura out loud anymore; he could almost imagine what she was thinking. Probably she'd pick on Daken's name first. She'd make up all sorts of little mean jokes about it; then  
she would begin insulting Daken's appearance—his hair, for sure. She would compare it to something, perhaps several things. He rolled his eyes.

"If people could _concentrate,_" he said, looking at Laura sternly.

"What? I'm _listening," _Laura said.

"You're part of the brains," Julian said.

"Yeah, the hearing part."

"_Laura…" _

She rolled her eyes.

**…**

Laura watched from across the room, drink in hand, one ankle bent to the side as she tilted her head, her eyes on Julian as he sat on a stool by the bar—across the room—while speaking  
to a blond-haired female, standing in front of him. They were supposed to be undercover; three pairs of the new team of X-men had been assigned to different restaurants in what Scott  
and Emma had narrowed down as the source of the Legacy victims. Laura, Sofia and Daken had been assigned to listening, while their respective partners (Julian, Josh and Nori) were  
supposed to be talking to the locals to derive as much information as possible.

Her hand tightened on the glass. She'd almost forgotten to listen to her surroundings; instead she had been focusing, for the past twenty minutes—on the dialogue of light flirting between  
her partner and his 'target'. They had begun by discussing how unpleasant it was in the establishment, moved on to the topic of recent events (including Time's Square; the girl had lingered  
on this for a while, then allowed Julian to turn the conversation); and then lifestyle.

"You look like you're in really good shape," the girl (who hadn't revealed her name) said to him, her eyes wide. "You must work out a lot."

Laura grinned to herself, and waited for his response.

Julian seemed to buy this line, looking smug.

"Yeah," he said, leaning back against the bar. "You could say that."

"I love working out," the girl said. She stretched out her hand. "I'm Lisa…could I buy you a drink?"

"Sure," he said, examining her more closely. Laura folded her arms, annoyed, then pulled out her cell phone and pressed speed dial. He stiffened at the buzz in his pocket, then flipped his phone open.

"Hi," he said.

"_Why_ is she buying you a drink?!"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," he said casually. "Sorry. I'll fix it tomorrow. It's going somewhere, I promise…we'll have it ready for Thursday. Ok?"

"Asshat!" Laura hissed, knowing the girl couldn't hear. "Don't make me come over there! I'll—"

Julian rolled his eyes. "Uh huh…no, it's fine. Thursday. Bye." He closed the phone and smiled at the girl. "Sorry…it was work."

"Work, on a Friday evening?" the girl asked. "What do you do?"

"Own my own business," he said with ease, although the words were obviously meant to impress her. "Ever heard of Keller pharmaceuticals?"

"No! Really?" the girl asked, incredulous.

Laura paused, sucking her tongue. There had been something about the girl's reaction—a slight pause—as if she'd already known who Julian was, and had needed to summon the  
right response. Maybe he was right. This was a lead.

"Yeah."

The bartender approached, and the pair ordered their drinks, then the girl slid up on the now-empty seat beside Julian.

"What's it like to be in big business?" the girl asked as their drinks were poured.

Julian thought for a second. "Hell if I know. I'm more of a playboy than anything else. I've got…other concerns." He accepted his drink and thanked the bar tender; the girl did the same,  
then downed hers—a shot—with one toss of her head.

Laura couldn't read the girl's expression, as her back was turned to her; but she watched carefully her body language. She could tell that they were now on a topic of interest for the girl.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Oh…sports team, kinda," Julian said. "And, well, socializing."

"What sport?"

Julian paused, then leaned closer to the girl's ear. "I lied. I'm…I'm a mutant."

There it was—the girl _did_ stiffen this time. "Are you serious?"

He grinned and leaned back. "Am I a mutant? Sweetheart…I'm one of the most powerful mutants on the _planet._"

"Ohh…I knew it," the girl said. "I can just tell. Listen…what are you doing tonight?" She leaned closer, holding Julian's eyes. Laura watched as her arm moved, just briefly, over the glasses; her eye  
caught a tiny white disc as it dropped into the fluid and dissolved almost instantly. She flipped open her cell phone and pressed redial.

Julian rolled his eyes and dug into his pocket again. "_Yes_?" he snapped into the phone. Laura turned her back to him. "Don't drink it. She just dumped something in your drink…it dissolved right away."

"Oh. Great." Julian mouthed something to the girl. "Well, I'll be in on Monday to look at it then. Uh huh. Sure. Bye."

"Doesn't sound like a playboy to me," the girl teased.

"Like I said….sort of," he said, returning her smile. He picked up his drink, held it to his lips, then paused and looked at the girl intently. "You know what would make me _really_ happy?"

"What?" the girl asked, a bit breathless. Obviously waiting for him to take a sip.

"If _you_ drank this," he said, holding the glass out towards her.

"W-what?" the girl stopped, her eyes wide. She had been caught off-guard.

"Never like to see a girl without a drink," he said teasingly. "And…don't wanna come off as an asshole…but I think it might help you loosen up a bit. I got an idea of what I'm doing tonight..."

"Really—I'll just order another one," the girl said. "I wanted to buy that for you."

"I insist," Julian said. "You can get the next round for me."

"…" the girl stared at the drink held out to her. Finally she accepted the drink and decided one small sip wouldn't hurt; she was so close to bagging this piece of shit that she could almost  
see his blood splattered on the concrete.

Plans would still proceed, even if she was delayed.

Her lips touched the glass; she tilted her head back and took a quick shot that was deceptive in size.

It was enough; moments later her eyes rolled up in her head, which crashed down on the counter. Julian leaned back, doing a good job of looking alarmed.

"Holy _SHIT!_" he said.

Laura headed towards them with swift strides. "_Out_ of the way," she said, pushing some bystander to the side. "I've got this," she announced. "She's my younger sister. I've been looking _  
everywhere _for her. She shouldn't be out drinking—she's a minor! My god, don't you guys _card_ in this place?!" She shouted the last part at the bartender, who leaned back, startled that such  
a loud, angry noise could come of a girl about two feet shorter than himself.

The affront had the desired effect; Laura was able to pick the unconscious girl up by the shoulders and drag her out unheeded. The bar soon returned to a more normal level of activity; Julian  
remained for about fifteen minutes, spoke to a few people, then tossed a bill on the counter and exited the bar, hurrying to the designated meeting spot where Laura was waiting.

He found her leaning on the alley wall, the other girl hanging over the edge of a trash bin like a rag doll.

"That's some powerful stuff," Julian said, looking into the bin and noting that the girl was still unconscious, her face lying in a bag of unpleasant looking rubbish.

"Mmmhm," Laura said. "Should wear off soon. She didn't have much…"

"Did you check her for wires and communications?"

"You know it," Laura said, holding up a small microphone, cord and iPod-like device. "We'll just hang on to these…David or some other tech-geek can trace the signal easily."

"Nice," Julian said, digging in his pocket for his cell phone. "I'll just give the others a call. I think we've got what we're looking for."

His cell rang. He flipped it open. "Hey, I was just about to—"

Laura froze, also hearing Daken's calm, nasal voice as he said:

"They've captured the Ashida girl."


	6. 4: First Strike 2:2 pressure

**A/N: **Yes, the Leper Queen is involved...along with some other villains. My driving plot is different than the current X-force plot, and will not involve that funky time traveling nonsense, nor the  
necrosha event. Thought it would be cool to "flesh out" some of the attacks made by the queen in words :-D

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "first strike" 4 Issue: 2/2 )**

**Chapter 139 : pressure  
**

**

* * *

  
**

Nori was sitting on a chair, her hands tied behind her back. Her head lolled forward in unconsciousness; she wallowed in an uneasy, dreamless coma. Her blue hair fell into her eyes,  
almost completely covering them, and her lips parted to allow a bead of drool to roll down her chin.

"Disgusting," a man watching her cooed.

"No," said a woman's voice. Muffled, from behind a hockey mask. "What's disgusting is being forced to work with _you. _You know that I will kill you as soon as our contract is through?"

"The feeling is mutual, I assure you," the man replied easily. He was younger; a few years older than Noriko Ashida, perhaps; his skin was covered in elaborate tattoos, and his hair rose  
in an impossible crest-like Mohawk along the center of his head. His expression was cold as he watched the girl in the chair; mocking.

He smiled slightly.

"I must admit curiosity," the woman beside him said. "Why are you doing this? What do you have to gain from assisting in the destruction of your species? Is it just revenge, or…?"

Daken paused.

"Allow me to tell you a fable," he said. "A fox and a scorpion reached the riverbank at the same time. Both required passage across the river.'

"'Help me across; I will ride on your muzzle,' the scorpion told the fox. The fox was a good-natured animal, and saw that the scorpion really  
needed assistance to cross the river.'

"But the fox feared for his safety. 'What is to stop you from stinging me?' the fox asked the scorpion, who replied: 'What have I to gain from  
stinging you? I would die too, as I cannot swim.'

"The fox accepted this explanation, and allowed the scorpion to ascend his muzzle. Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the  
fox began to die—and they began to drown—the fox asked the scorpion, 'Why?'

"To which the scorpion replied…" Daken paused again, smiling slightly. "'It's my nature.' "

"I see," the Leper Queen said, although she didn't. She checked her watch, then waved her hand to someone on the side; a hypodermic needle was pressed into the palm of her hand, and  
she approached the girl in the chair. She brought the needle to her neck, pierced the skin, and slowly but surely depressed the plunger.

"Get her in the truck, _now_," the Leper Queen said.

Daken slipped out the back way. In the alley, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"I've tracked them to the Rockefeller Center," he said. "They are going to release her in precisely five minutes."

**…**

"_They've captured the Ashida girl." _

"…" Laura froze, her eyes wide, as she heard the words.

"Oh shit," Julian said. "Fuck. Ok, Daken, head to the jet. We need to go back to the school and—"

"Are you _crazy?!_" Laura almost knocked the phone out of Julian's hand as she grabbed it. "_DAKEN, _you little shit! How could you—you know what, nevermind, I don't care about your  
incompetence. Track Nori." She snapped the phone shut and glared at Julian, who had been glaring at her.

"Laura—"

"Nori's _life_ is at risk if we don't do this right. Get the team, we need everyone. We're going after her. Then you fly this turd back to the jet and lock her in the washroom where she  
belongs. _NOW, _you understand me?"

"Who the fuck do you—"

"If you don't leave in two seconds, I will turn the Shrimps against you."

"…" Julian stared at her, speechless. There was no doubt in his mind that Laura _would _carry the threat out; he failed to see how it was a related threat.

"ONE!"

He shook his head, then decided that Laura was probably right; if this was the group they thought it was, then Nori was going to be the next Legacy victim. He approached the  
girl (still hanging like a rag doll over the edge of the garbage bin).

"Wait," Laura said. She marched over to the bin, reached up for the lid, and slammed it down on the girl as hard as she could manage (Julian thought he head a rib break). "_Now_ you can take her."

**…**

"_I've tracked them to the Rockefeller Center,_" Daken's voice, on Julian's cell phone. Laura snapped it shut and handed it to the owner. "Beam us up, Scotty," she ordered. "And make  
it snappy. We have like two minutes to get there."

"—uh—" Julian paled. "Shit, can we _get_ there in time?"

"We have to."

"It's 50 miles. The X-wing doesn't _go_ that fast."

"But _you_ do."

"Not carrying everyone!" Julian said, exasperated. "There's eight people here! Nine, including myself! That's like a thousand pounds of dead weight, maybe more!"

"Nobody likes a pussy, Keller. Just do it."

Julian glared at her; then he suddenly swept everyone off their feet (in a vacuum like effect) and projected them towards the Manhattan city center, the air behind him suddenly making a  
sharp _crack! _that tapered off into a roar of sound waves crashing together behind them.

**…**

Nori sat on a bench, holding her bare arms and shivering. She didn't feel so good; she couldn't remember what had happened beyond five minutes ago—when she'd woken up on this  
bench. The gloves she was wearing kept making funny beeping noises, rising and falling, like warning sirens; she was too groggy to investigate.

"You ok, honey?" someone asked her. She looked up through her hair slightly—a bum, quite dirty and ragged.

"I—I don't have an-ny change so b-bugger off," she mumbled as she turned away. She didn't want to talk right now.

"Fine!" the bum snapped, insulted. She heard a shopping cart being pulled away in an indignant manner, but she didn't care. Her teeth chattered together as she fought waves of nausea.

Suddenly the shivers stopped—she wasn't cold anymore.

Now she was itchy, and burning hot, so hot. She leapt to her feet and ran into the middle of the street, completely disorientated. Cars screeched to a halt, horns blared, but it was as if she was in her own world.

"Huh—what—MAKE IT STOP!" Nori shouted, sparks of electricity dancing in the air around her. "MAKE IT—makeitstoppleaseitsbad—"

She began to zip through the halted cars, a blur of motion. The movement felt good, felt right, eased the itching. Faster and faster she ran, the pavement smoking behind her.

A small cargo truck suddenly pulled out of traffic and headed her off; she hit the side; bounced off it, fell to her behind and stared up at it, dazed. Her manner was similar to that of a bird hitting a  
window. Then she shook her head, scrambled to her feet, and ran back the way she had come.

In the truck she had hit, the man spoke into a cell phone: "The subject was running in the wrong direction, but I corrected her. She'll be there in thirty seconds; make sure she's in the  
center of the buildings. What the—" he heard a loud crack, a sharp tearing noise, and then…

_**BOOM! **_

"ARRGH!" the cell phone flew out of the man's hand as the pavement beside his truck exploded, knocking his vehicle on its side and sending him tumbling against the passenger window, having not worn a seatbelt.

He blinked. Through the haze of pane caused by a broken arm, he saw yellow booted feet outside his cracked windshield.

"Shittt," he hissed.

**…**

"She went _this_ way!" Laura shouted, running after Nori's scent trail. Julian remained on his knees, his arms shaking as he propped himself up on the pavement; the rest of the team ran  
after Laura. Josh pulled off his gloves as he ran, wondering if he could _heal_ this.

The trail lead to an enormous shopping complex—and a broken glass door, which Nori had obviously run through. Pale, Laura leapt through the glass and pursued; it was obvious the  
shoppers had just seen her run by, as they were staring in the direction she had gone.

Another broken glass door opened the way to a courtyard.

Nori was standing in the middle, looking up at the buildings.

"I—I remember," she said suddenly.

"Nori…" Laura ran towards her. "Stop, don't think, don't do _anything. _Josh—"

"No, you can't…I can't…I have to…" Nori now looked at her sparking gauntlets, then held up her hands, over her head.

"Nori—"

"I love you, David. Goodbye." Nori closed her eyes as her gauntlets suddenly disintegrated into fragments of metal, forced apart by pure blue light that started to spread. It was  
like being in the center of lightning.

"GO!" Laura shouted at the top of her lungs as the wave rushed towards them.

Sooraya exploded into a cloud of sand and swept to surround Nori, seeking to dampen the charge; Josh pulled off his gloves as Sofia picked him up with a current of wind and swept him  
towards the sandstorm, her expressions serious.

"Do not be afraid, Josh. I will not allow the sand to touch you," she said.

Inside the sand-wall a moment later, Josh found Nori on her knees, a blue figure, her chest appearing to be cracking open as a large white gash split the center.

Her eyes, which were glowing, rolled wildly in her head. Josh crouched low, said a silent prayer that Sooraya was enough to ground the flow of electricity from Nori's hands, then moved in,  
his hands reaching for the girl's neck.

Josh gasped slightly. He could _feel _it, Nori was about to explode, like the man whose body parts had plastered Times' Square—and she was going to take everyone with her, if he didn't fix it _now._

He could also feel the pathogen in her blood. It was almost enough to make _him_ explode, just from contacting it. He bit his lip—he had to do this.

"NNNNRGHH—" Nori gritted her teeth as he began healing desperately, the effort as great as when he had healed Laura of her burns. Harder, because now he did not have a healing factor to assist him.  
He felt weak, but he felt the pathogen responding, cell by cell, slowly control mechanisms were turning off, the mechanisms that were malfunctioning to produce this—this—

He was beyond thought; he dropped to his knees as well, never breaking contact. After what seemed like an eternity, Nori gasped; her eyes cleared and the air made a _slurrp _noise as the  
energy was withdrawn into her fingers again.

She and Josh hit the concrete at the same time, unconscious.

"It is done," Sooraya said, reforming to reveal their teammates, sprawled haphazardly on the ground. Sofia ran towards them, followed by her friends; Laura hung back.

"I'm going to go find Keller," Laura said to Cessily as she turned away. "Before he lamely gets hit by a car or something and becomes roadkill. It would be _so_ like him."

**…**

Julian woke up slowly on the couch, an icepack on his head, and a small hand batting his nose repeatedly.

"JOO! Whazzat?! Whazzat?! Are yous dead?!"

"Nate, stop it," Laura's voice called. "Julian needs to sleep. He did something really big with his brain and he's not up to explaining things right now."

"Wan' know!"

"I can tell you."

"Wan' _Joo_!" Nate's fingers suddenly sought his eyelid and pulled it up. Julian groaned, but was helpless to fight the small, inquisitive face peering into his eye expectantly.

"_NATE!_" Laura snapped, hurrying towards the boy and sweeping him away. "Stop being such a prick! Let's have supper."

"_BUT MUM_!" Nate shouted, as loudly as he could.

"Christ," Julian whispered, reaching up feebly and pulling the icepack down over his eyes. He heard Laura haul Nate away (the boy kicking and yelling all the while) and then as she  
wrestled him into his feeding stool, beside Rachel, who was sitting quietly and watching her brother make a fuss.

"Be quiet, Nate," Laura ordered.

Julian could practically hear the boy sulk.

"Don' wanna! Wan' Joo! _**WANT!**_" The last part was spoken simultaneously by the twins.

"Nett!" Rachel protested.

"The hell'r my pills?" Julian croaked.

A cupboard door opening, a rattle of pills, then a bottle was pressed into his hand. "Dr. McCoy said to go easy. Apparently, you were right…carrying that much weight at _that_ speed really wasn't  
that great for you." She paused. "You broke Mach 3 at one point, you know."

Julian was silent, his fingers feeling for the cap of the pill bottle. Laura watched for a few moments, then took it back from him, opened it, and dolled out a few into his hand (which was shaking slightly).

"Take two, have something to eat, then you can have two more."

He wanted them all, but he didn't have the means to argue. He thought of the illusion Emma had created of him being ripped in half, and realized this pain was worse. He felt like his eyes were about to pop.

Laura reached out and touched his hair. "Thanks," she said. "I love you."


	7. 5: Lost and 1:3 gone

**A/N:** OMG, my life is a mess, lol. In no particular order, my troubles include relationship (breakup/new one/etc--still trying to sort everything out), health (killer flu--lost my voice now and can't work!--along with another problem), school, and all 3 of my computers breaking down. Luckily I managed to salvage all my stories from the computer I was writing on. I'm updating on another computer right now and it's more difficult to do than before; so please bear with my now slow updates. I haven't abandoned any stories.

Thanks, you guys rock! I will post this note on all stories that are in progress.

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Lost and..." 5 Issue: 1/3 )**

** Chapter 140 : Gone **

* * *

It took a week of house rest for Julian to recover from the exertion of saving Nori; a week which he spent in blinding pain and nausea. He'd been warned not to  
use his powers for a while, by Dr. McCoy, who thought he had strained himself far too much by travelling so more attacks occurred in this time; however,  
the Senior X-men had dealt with most of them, the new team only sent out once (with Laura as the substitute leader) as back-up. One mutant was saved, but two  
died; the only victory achieved by the teams was that no body else died in the explosions.

Nori and Josh were similarly incapacitated by the experience. The former had indeed survived, but was verging on critical condition (even with healing), and the latter  
had exhausted his resources so severely that he had an IV tube to replace lost nutrients. Emma had placed them both in a regenerative psionic coma to speed the  
healing process slightly.

**...**

The blond-haired girl moaned slightly, her head tilting forwards. Her chest ached. She blinked, then began to turn her head slightly to the side as she noticed she was  
not in a familiar surroundings. She was sitting on a chair, her hands tied behind her back; a man in a dark blue bodysuit—with a red visor—was looking down at her, his  
arms folded, his expression stern. At his side was a scantily clad woman, wearing all white.

They wore X-insignia.

Her eyebrows drew together. The sedative she'd taken, somewhat similar to chloral hydrate, had the benefit of quick action and quick dissipation, so something else  
must have been used to subdue her—because she felt _awful_.This meant she had been unconscious for a while. Sandra knew things, a lot of things about kidnapping.  
She kidnapped mutants, for the Sapien League. She was a chemist, and a professional kidnap artist; she created her own knock out drugs, and sold them, as well as  
kidnapping. She 'took' humans, too, for commission; however, she was a strong anti-mutant idealist and did work for the Sapien League for free.

Her lip curled. She recognized _this _one, the mutant with the visor—and the slutty female at his side. Scott Summers—the _head_ mutant at this school—and  
Emma Frost, a dangerous mind infiltrator.

"Good, you're awake," the male said.

She remained silent.

"I'm sure you're feeling fairly terrible at the moment," the female said airily. "Mickies tend to have that effect, don't they? Of course, I'm sure you don't sample your product  
all that often…you've got to save some for the clients." She paused. "Alright, I admit…the sensations you are feeling right now might have something to do with my presence."

"I won't tell you…_anything,_" the girl said, her voice hoarse and raspy.

"It's quite alright," the male said. "We understand you're in no condition to talk right now…so Emma's just going to do a friendly little rummage in your mind."

"Won't hurt a bit," the female added.

"NO!" the girl said. "I won't _let_ you!"

"Darling…Sandra…I'm already _done,_" the female cooed. She looked at Scott. "It's as we suspected. She's only a cog, but she's a highly regarded cog…she has direct connections to the Leper Queen."

"Mmm. Does she know the next plans?"

Sandra raised her head and looked at Scott in the eye. And smiled.

Emma's eyes widened as she grasped the full consequences of the plan.

"I sure do," Sandra said. "And they're already in motion. It's too late for your kind."

**…**

"WHATZIT—" Laura gasped, sitting up in bed and staring ahead.

Julian opened his eyes slightly and looked up from his pillow, but said nothing; this had happened before. The last situation had taken place at 4 AM, and Laura had been woken by Emma to assist.

She paused for a moment, tilted her head to look at him (he pretended to be asleep), then she threw the covers off and stumbled out of bed. Headed for the closet, towards her uniform.

Julian waited for a few moments after the front door closed, thinking it was odd that she didn't try to wake him; then he too sat up and pushed the covers away.

A few moments later he was zipping up his gear and knocking on his brother's door. No answer. He shoved the door open and threw on the light.

"Wake up, douchebag!"

"ARRGH!" James scrambled to pull the covers over his head. "Wadda—"

"Something's going on," Julian said. "You need to watch the Shrimps for me."

**…**

Having followed Laura to the ready room, he stopped at the door and hesitated, then opened it.

"A New X-man has been lost," Emma's voice was saying. "We—"

The room was full—several teachers, the team, the senior team. Emma. Scott. They turned to look at him, and Emma's lips parted, in mid sentence. A sentence she could not finish, because he was there.

She paused.

"Laura," she said instead.

"I didn't wake him," Laura said. Her face was pale.

Julian continued to stand in the doorway. This was odd, too odd. His eyes scanned the room, searching.

Searching for who was missing.

There was Sofia, Cessily, and Santo. Sooraya. Kevin. Even the other people he didn't count as close friends were there: David, Laurie and Jay. Nori and Josh were still absent.

Then he realized who was missing.

"No…" he said.

"Julian—"

"No—"

"Sit down," Scott said firmly, pointing to a chair. A direct order.

"Where is he?!" Julian demanded.

Scott stared at him directly, but Emma's head lowered, ever so slightly, and she closed her eyes.

"WHERE IS BRIAN?!" Julian demanded. "Give me the fucking details, right now, or I swear to—"

Laura looked at him straight. "He's dead."

**…**

"Julian." Laura was sitting on the arm of the couch, her hand on his shoulder as he struggled not to explode in anger. "No one knew. He was last seen at curfew,  
going into his room. They found nothing. No signs of a struggle, a closed window…they only thought to check because they found plans for him in that girl we  
caught. Emma found him on Cerebra, just as…just as it happened."

"When?" he whispered hoarsely. Muffled, as he was hugging a pillow tightly against his front and biting the corner.

"Nine this morning," Laura said. "Just before we were called in. Near the UN building. His powers overloaded and mutated. He turned on the suicide pathways in the  
brains of over two hundred people."

Julian said nothing more for a while.

**…**

A week later, Emma stood at the front of the table, leaning over it slightly, dressed in her best black garments, as were her students. Her expression was as unyielding as that of the boy who had been closest to the victim.

"Today, we have lost one of us," Emma said, her voice cool. "That will never happen again under my watch. Do you understand?"

Silence.

"_Understand?_" Emma repeated.

"Yes," Laura said, her voice hard.

"Good."

Emma straightened.

"We must find out _how_ the school was infiltrated. That is our next order of business. After this."

She paused. "Now let us bury one of our own."

**...**

"I'll have to call you back," Daken said. His long, elegant fingers snapped the cell phone shut, and then he tucked it into the back pocket of his jeans.

He stood on the veranda, gazing across the Xavier property, at the group gathered out by the gazebo. Yes, the funeral. His eyes narrowed as he heard  
the approaching footsteps growing louder, smelled the taint on the air.

"Daken."

He didn't turn at Logan's voice. His father paused, leaning against the pillar.

"I'm sorry I brought you here at such a bad time. But…all th' same…if it means anything, I'm awful glad you ain't out there where I can't keep an eye on you."

Daken did not answer, only continued to watch the funeral proceed. What Logan didn't know, wasn't aware of—what no one was aware of—was his abilities. Ability  
to hear Logan, and smell Logan, before the older man could sense him.

The ability to control others, through scent. It had been only too easy to follow the boy down the corridor, planting a suggestion for pliability—_do what I say. _The boy  
had stopped, as Daken had leaned over and whispered: _"She's waiting for you. Don't get caught."_

Everything else had been done by the boy, as soon as he'd seen the girl waiting outside his window. Undetectable, thanks to Daken's slight manipulations to the mansion's security system.

_These pathetic people deserve to die, _he thought. _It's too easy. _

Logan finally left, accepting that Daken would not acknowledge him.

**…**

_Circle. Circle, circle, circle. _

Julian was dreaming, dreaming about a long, endless loop. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead as he followed the path that seemed set in  
stone. He saw circle after circle—rings, chains, bullet holes, cells.

**_One way or another, everything happens again, _**Jean said, her expression deathly serious.** _You cannot stop what has occurred, only change  
the order, and the way they happen. _**

_Circle, circle, circle. _

"NYARRGH!" He felt himself power up in rage—against this circle that seemed to be controlling him. "I'M GOING TO BR—"

He woke up to Laura slamming the back of her hand in his face. "WHATZIT?!" she gasped, having been startled out of a sound sleep.

"—pfft," he finished lamely.

They lay in silence for a while, then he rolled over. Laura glanced over at his back.

"And you're not going to elaborate on _why_ you woke me up?"

"No." Julian mumbled into his pillow.

"Fine. I'll have you know, that was the _best_ sleep I've had in weeks. Totally dreamless. Wait, no, I was on a beach, doing tequila shots with Johnny Depp.  
I pity you and your nightmare. Must suck to be—"

"Laura—" He was annoyed, then amused. "Fuck you, you know?"

"Okay." She said, curling up against his back in a comforting gesture. He eventually drifted off into an uneasy sleep again.

**…**

Three days after Brian Cruz's funeral, everything went to hell. As if it hadn't already been there.

"I'm leaving you in charge of the New X-men," Scott said to Julian—ordered—as he zipped up his jacket. It was the dead of the night, and the senior X-men were rushing  
out, having just learned of a planned multiple Legacy-bombing through various underground leaks. "Emma's staying," Scott said. "You still answer to her, if something's up.  
But remember, you're in charge. Do you understand?"

Julian was silent, confused at the wording, but he nodded. He was silent a lot these days.

"Good," Scott said, turning away. Neither had said _if this is a trap, if this is permanent. If we don't come back. _

**…**

"I don't want you out there alone," Julian said, on his cell phone with Laura, staring out at his house in the distance from the porch. "Bring the Shrimps. Bring James. I don't care how hard it is, I want you where I can see you. Don't hang up."

"Okay," Laura said quietly, pushing away the bedclothes on the other end. He could hear her walking, then as she pounded on James' door.

"RISE AND SHINE! Get the hell up, emo!"

Vague snarling, and background noises as James protested. "—fuck do you—HEY—oh my _god_—"

"Yeah, and I'll do it again if you don't—"

Julian shifted and fingered his keys in his pockets. He should go help—he wanted to—but he was afraid of leaving the school, of disobeying Scott's explicit orders to remain.

In case it was a trap.

**…**

Laura suddenly sat up on the couch. She'd been dozing, the Shrimps cuddled around her, while Julian stared at the security monitors, his arms folded. Nothing  
had happened for three hours, yet he felt he had missed something.

"Julian—" Laura said.

He turned his head, traded a look with her. His eyes widened to match hers—he could hear it now, too. The sounds of destruction. Julian looked at the sleeping  
toddlers, then at the screen, still showing a peaceful, quiet mansion.

The real mansion shuddered slightly from an explosion, and the faint, distant sounds of screams could be heard.

"We've been had," he said, standing up and scooping Rachel off the sofa. The girl blinked, startled, but he paid no heed as he headed for the door. "I want you  
guys out of here. I don't want you _anywhere _near this. I—"

He opened the door, and came face to face with a surprise.

Laura stared over his shoulder with horror.

"Miss me, X?" Kimura asked, peering through the opened door with one eye.

Laura continued to stare at the woman who had caused her so much pain in her lifetime, the woman that had broken her, abused her, and left her for dead so  
very many times. The woman that was smiling at her too widely.

The woman she had personally pumped full of liquid adamantium.

"But…" Laura's voice trembled, something Julian hadn't heard before. "You're…"

"Oh, _clone,_" Kimura said, raising her firearm and pointing it at Julian's forehead point-blank. "Think, think _hard, _clone. Isn't it obvious…clone?"

"…" Laura moved like a snake. She dropped Nate, shoved Julian to the side, grabbed the doorframe and swung out her booted feet into Kimura's stomach. The impact  
would have sent any other woman reeling; Kimura twitched ever so slightly, but as her finger pulled the trigger, the shot went wild and instead hit Julian's arm, missing  
Rachel's head by inches. He jerked backwards, almost dropping the girl in the onset of pain.

He glared at Kimura, his eyes glowing green.

"Fucking touch them and I will rip you apart," Julian hissed. "Out of the—" he began to tell Laura.

"NO!" She turned to face him for a moment. "Take them and go! You heard Dr. McCoy, you can't—"

Rachel turned in his arms. "Mum?"

Laura let out a cry as Kimura pulled her hair from behind and sucked her out through the door, her fingers scrambling to find the frame and failing. Kimura  
whirled her around, slammed her fist into her mouth.

Julian reached out with his hand and pinned Kimura against the ceiling, his expression cold, his hand shaking. His head throbbed so badly he thought he would drop her; the  
energy travelling through his fingers was unsteady, pulsing.

"GO!" Laura snapped, seeing he was unsteady. "I'll—_urrf—_I'll be fine!" Laura's voice, curdling with rage. She was on her knees, on the floor, blood running down her chin  
from the injury she'd received. "_I don't want them to see!_"

He hesitated, holding Kimura against the ceiling. He could disembowel Kimura right now—give her an aneurism—a heart problem—but Nate was looking up at him with wide  
eyes, innocent eyes that hadn't seen violence before.

He didn't have the heart to be the one to taint him.

And he didn't have the energy to keep holding this woman a mere prisoner.

Julian closed his eyes, then let Kimura drop, and slammed the door, taking Nate's hand. "C'mon," he said, pulling the boy down the corridor.

"But _mum—_" Nate said, his voice high and keening.

"She'll be ok. I promise."

**…**

**_~ Children, do not leave your rooms. We are under attack. Such actions will result in death, and worse, detention. New X-men, we are using alpha 1,  
to your stations please. And if you could be so kind as to bring the 'Shrimps' to me, Mr. Keller, I would be much obliged. I am heading towards Cerebra.~ _**

Frost, perfectly calm and collected, even though she was currently engaged in combat with two soldiers. Her nose was bleeding; earlier, when she'd still been flesh,  
a woman had appeared—out of nowhere—interrupting her in the middle of a sip of tea. "That was twenty thousand dollars of cosmetic surgery," Emma had hissed,  
not even wiping away the blood as she turned to diamond. She'd brought her fist into her adversary's stomach, sending her through the wall.

"I expect a rather large compensation cheque in the mail," she'd called after her.

**…**

"Miss Frost," Julian said, following her into Cerebra. "Here. Keep them safe. Laura's engaged with—"

"A rather generic, idiotic woman with a nasty temper? Yes, I've met her. I need you to assist me in preparing the Shrimps."

"No—"

"No argument. Do it."

Julian stopped as he saw that Emma had crammed the main helmet on and was now typing commands into Cerebra. Two helmets descended from the ceiling at  
either side, the formation used by the Stepford Cuckoos.

He had to go, but suddenly he was concerned. What was Emma planning on exposing his children to?

"You've got to be kidding. Where are the Cuckoos? These two don't know _squat_ about _shit._"

"The Cuckoos were the first to fall," Emma said calmly. "What the 'Shrimps' can do will be entirely sufficient. Prepare the girl, please," Emma said, holding out her hand to  
Nate. "Come here, darling…Auntie Emma needs your help quite badly to make a naughty girl learn a lesson about cosmetic sabotage."

Nate looked at Julian, who was busy leading Rachel to the helmet.

_Laura. _

"Do it," Julian said. He picked up the helmet and lowered it gently on the toddler's head; it was an almost comical effect, as it fell down to her mouth, which was like a  
little rosebud in her heart-shaped face.

The Shrimps stood, wearing the oversized helmets, their lips pursed, afraid to move.

"Now…here," Emma kneeled, and took the childrens' hands in hers. "I want you to concentrate…on telling the bad people something with me. Can you do that?"

"Why?" Nate asked.

Emma paused.

"Because elephants have flat feet," Julian said quickly.

"Oh." Nate accepted this. "What 'm I s'posed to say?"

"Anything you want, darling," Emma said. "I need you to think about putting them to sleep while you say it, though. Can you make the bad people take a nap, darlings?"

"Yes," the Shrimps answered together.

"Good," Emma said. "On three…ready? Good. One, two…"

**_THIS IZ THE SONG DAT NEVER ENDS, YES IT GOES ON AN ON MY FRENS, SOME PEOPLE STARTING SINGIN IT NOT KNOWING WHAT IT WAS, AN THEY'LL  
CONTINUE SINGING IT FOREVERS JUS BECAUSE!! THIS IZ THE SONG DAT NEVER ENDS…._**

Emma threw back her head, made a choking sound, and her eyes squeezed shut very hard. She threw her head forwards again and blood rolled down her nose.

She opened her mouth, obviously in a great deal of pain.

"Are you—" Julian began, rubbing his forehead, which was now aching with a renewed fervor.

Emma ripped the helmet off her head. "Dear god."

"What?"

"I think they may have permanently damaged a few of them," Emma said. "I've never felt such a _forceful, _clumsy psionic intrusion in my life…but it's done. All of the  
intruders have been…disabled. You may go find Laura now."

"STAY WITH THEM!" Julian said, racing out. Moments later he took to the air, ignoring the ripping sensation. This was more important than pain.

He couldn't fly through the adamantium-plated ceiling—or he would have.

**…**

"LAURA!" Julian shouted, sifting through the rubble of the room he'd left her in.

**_ "LAURRRA!" _**

He finally stopped shouting, about half an hour later, after he'd searched every square inch of the room and its vicinity, and had forced Emma to run searches over and over.

Laura was gone.

"Kid…" Logan, approaching. The X-men had returned as soon as they could manage, turning the jet around in midflight. "We'll get her back, I swear."

Julian was silent, and his expression was cold and stone-like.


	8. 5: Lost and 2:3 stolen

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Lost and" 5 Issue: 2/3 )**

**Chapter 141 : stolen  


* * *

**

It was dark, and she was frightened. Or would have been, should have been. Her skin was itchy; this could have been from the blood she  
was covered in, which had dried on her skin. Or perhaps it was internal, the itching—her veins, full of something powerful, sticky, and violent.

_Glue. _

"…trainnnn…" words in the room.

She lifted an eyelid; it felt like a mile, but in reality was barely a slit. Her eye was rolled up, and she fought to bring it down. _Focus. _Everything  
was blurry. A dim room, motion nearby, but she didn't understand it.

Time had slowed down.

She let her eye close, gratefully. Nothing would happen if time had stopped.

**…**

Orange.

It was so orange, and it tasted horrible. It _smelled, _it smelled so bad, like burnt, melted, sweet plastic. Sickly sweet. It was in her, because  
she was breathing it, swallowing it, choking on it. It was seeping into her tear ducts through her bulging, frog-like eyes.

Firm hands, on her head, pushing her down, pinching her hair. Was it actually pushing her down? No; she was wilted, over the edge of a tub,  
her head submerged, like a piece of limp fabric. She needed air…the itchiness had disappeared, and now she was burning inside, her body  
entering an anaerobic state.

"Outttttttttt," a distorted noise. A plastic record, and it was warping.

Her head was yanked back roughly. Her neck bones—_vertebrae,_ she tried to remind herself—snapped and ground together in protest. Vomit and  
liquid ran down her chin, and she drew her eyebrows together as she coughed, lightly, though she needed to cough deeper, quicker. She needed air.

"…resp…tory…deeep...ression…"

"Guudd…"

The orange was rushing towards her again, and she wanted to cry out, but all that escaped her was a pitiful, raspy, high-pitched noise.

"Ehn…" like a whisper.

**…**

"FOCUS!"

Her face burned in pain, and her eyes snapped open.

Kimura.

"Go for it," the woman said.

Laura's eyes tilted down—_yes, she had a name, she wasn't just a puddle of glue_—a little easier. Less glue. She saw—she saw her skin, full of  
minute cuts, and a barrel of orange, in the arms of Kimura.

The barrel tilted slowly.

"MMMPF—" through the gag, there _was_ a gag. It tasted like cotton. The air was full of that sweet odor—and her skin was on fire, like when  
she'd been burnt to a crisp. Except now it wasn't stopping, wasn't going out.

A few minutes later it tasted like blood. She'd bitten—what had she bitten?

**…**

A woman was speaking to him, a woman with light—almost white—blond hair.

Cold, blue eyes. Sort of…frosty.

"FROST!" Julian tried to lunge forwards, but found himself frozen in place, sitting in a chair; Emma glared at him.

"Restrain yourself…and I will let you go," she said, her voice firm.

"LET GO OF ME!" He shouted.

"Julian, stop shouting, or I will disallow you the ability to speak," Emma said. "You will do _no good_ by following them, alone. The longer you  
fight, the longer I will spend restraining _you,_ instead of attempting to find Laura."

"You fucking get out of my head, _this instant,_" Julian hissed.

"I do not respond to threats."

"THEY TOOK LAURA—"

"Yes, they did. And I would really rather be in Cerebra, right now, focusing my search efforts on _her. _But—seeing as you intent to foolhardily  
make chase, alone, when they are obviously quite coordinated and prepared, I cannot do that."

Julian gritted his teeth. The room's atmosphere was tense; he realized they were sitting in the partially-ruined ready room, his team more  
towards the back, watching him with mixed expressions of fear and pity.

Nate looked anxious. "MUM'S—"

"Shh," Sofia said, patting the boy.

Logan cleared his throat. "Keller—she's right. They're good. I can't smell a _thing, _it's like she just disappeared. We need Emma on Cerebra,  
and that ain't happening till we know yer stayin'."

Daken watched from behind his father, emotionless, bored, as if he were watching a movie he didn't particularly care about—but his girlfriend did.

Julian knew they were right. His eyes shifted across the room—the Shrimps, with Sofia, watching him. _Everyone _was watching him.

"Fine," he said bitterly. "But if I see you do _anything_ other than looking for her—hell, if we're not after her in ten minutes—I'm leaving."

"Kid…Laura's priority," Logan said.

"Yes," Emma agreed. "Especially since she was the only one taken. This whole event—all of it, including the distraction—was a decoy to  
kidnap her, a mystery we must get to the bottom of, and quickly."

"We no wheah—" Rachel said, but nobody heard her as they rushed out of the room, heading for Cerebra.

**…**

Laura stared up at the needle, the sharp needle held above her head, in cruel hands that might stab it into her forehead at any  
moment. It had been done several times. Dripping, dripping, sweat rolling down her forehead, along with the blend of orange in rivulets.

Darkness.

_**SQWARRKKK—**_she sat, her hands in enormous, heavy cuffs, forcing her to lean forwards, her head yanked back at an angle, needles  
holding her eyelids open.

In front of her sat a man in a wheelchair, his face expressionless.

Every now and then Laura twitched involuntarily, as a mild shock was delivered to her, in coordination with something else. A stimulus  
only she and the man could see. Under her nose ran a tube that occasionally—just for a moment—filled with orange fluid from the chair, like a pulse.

Darkness.

This pattern repeated itself, over and over. Dunking. Water boarding. The images. The cut torture. All with the smell, the horrible, sweet smell.

She was five years old again.

**…**

Red. Shades of red. Some darker, some lighter. Surrounding it thoroughly, like it was swimming. Far off in the distance, it could see humanoid  
skeletons, their warm, vital organs pulsing slightly.

But they were for later. No, now it had a focus…there was something that needed to die, and it was going to do the slaughtering. It crouched in  
the bush, licking its dry lips and trying to focus on the road.

Its eyes hurt.

_There._ On all sensory ranges, like a spot of brilliant white, blinding it, infuriating it. This creature needed to die, the source of this blinding  
light. The being was moving towards her at a steady pace, the organs engaging in that same gentle throbbing motion as the ones in the  
distance. Squeezing blood through the muscles.

_Lunge. _

At last second the humanoid turned, its face just a skull, because the skin was see-through in the light. The teeth parted, and wires brushed  
down its cheekbones. It made a noise of surprise, but its claws were already out, bursting through its knuckles like bullets out of a gun barrel.

_SLISH! SLASH! SLISH! _

_Thud. _

A heavy noise, somewhat wet. The skeleton slowly sunk to the ground, the wires slapping on the sidewalk.

The haze began to clear, and it blinked, feeling a dull ache in its head.

_Wait._ No. That wasn't right. It…it…it was a she. Her head. _Her_ head ached, and…

Confused, she touched her forehead. She felt sick, she was going to wretch, she was already gagging. She turned her head, sunk to  
her knees and began to heave into the ditch, watching sickly rivers of yellow and orange run into the grass. Black stuff dripped into the  
river. No, that was her hair, a stringy, matted, oily and bloody mess. The black in the river is…she squinted. She was bleeding, from  
inside. Internal bleeding.

She became aware of a huffing, wheezing noise, louder than the soft music emanating from the headphones on the concrete, and turned  
her head, just slightly. Was it her?

No.

"Luh…Luh…L-laura…"

She stiffened. That sound…that _word_ wass familiar. She knew it. It has something to do with her…a name. _Her_ name.

A strand of hair falls out of the way, and she can see through the tangled matt of her hair. There is…there is a person lying, crumpled,  
on the pavement of the road. _Snff, snff. _Her upper lip curls slightly. She can smell blood, lots of blood.

It wasn't hers. It belonged to the person that was lying down.

"…" The person's fingers curled. "..."

Three heartbeats passed, very loud in her ears. She could hear the other person's heart slowing, becoming shallower. They were dying.

"No…" Suddenly she scrambled over to the person's side, in a flurry of movement. It was a woman, mid to late 30's, with the same black  
hair that fell to either side of her own face. _No…_

Laura's chin crumpled. "S-sarah?"

"…why?" the woman asked, her voice raspy and gurgly. Sucking, wet noises from her ribcage. _Lungs. _Laura could see the blood  
blossoming through her mother's white jogging sweater. It was sticky and black, like some kind of liquid licorice. Or oil.

"I…" Laura struggled to push herself onto one elbow, reached out with her other hand to touch her mother. _Medical. Think, think. She  
had to…sucking lung wound…patch the hole…patch the hole…_

She cast her eyes around the ditch. A fluttering garbage bag caught her eye. Scrambling towards it, Laura's strength began to fail. Something  
was wrong with her. A drop of the same black liquid emanating from her mother began to drip from her nose. Closing her eyes, Laura felt her  
fingers touch the bag, and she snatched it deftly.

"L-laura…something to s-say…"

She ignored her, popping her claw. _Shripppp. _She cut the bag into halves, then into quarters, her hands shaking. She cut her palm, but didn't care.

"—_gahhk—_" Sarah was beginning to suffocate, her hand curling over the wound.

"M-mom, don't…" Laura said, struggling to move the stiffening digits. She finally succeeded, and her palm slapped the piece of shredded  
garbage bag over top.

"Here…hold this…" she blinked. More blood was streaming out of her nose, and she felt sicker. Her eye began to twitch.

"…¤…" Laura felt the hand clamp down over hers, holding the bag in place; then she slumped to the cement.

When she opened her eyes again, she was lying in the mud on a jogging trail, her front soaked through with blood and wet leaves. In front of  
her were two booted feet: she knew those boots.

Kimura.

"Have a nice stroke, X?" the woman asked, bending over and seizing a chunk of her hair. Hauling her up like she weighed nothing, even though  
she wasn't a complete lightweight. Laura winced and wrapped her hands around the woman's arm; how could she? There was something wrong  
with her head, she shouldn't…

"Should we make sure?" a male voice asked. Subservient.

"Yes. Recover the body. We're going to have some fun later."

In the van: Laura sat, gagged, her hands bound behind her back with adamantium links. She glared at Kimura, who grinned back.

"I'd call that a successful little family outing, wouldn't you? Pity we can't let you remember this. Might spoil some surprises we have planned."

"…" Laura's eye twitched.

"Ma'am!" The doors opened and a soldier peered in, his face pale. "We couldn't find her anywhere! Just blood stains!"

"What?" Kimura asked, her voice angry. "But…I saw her! She was mortally wounded when we recalled X! Shredded lungs!"

"There's nothing there," the soldier repeated.

"That's bullshit." Kimura got up, withdrew a gun from her holster. "Guess I'll have to take care of things _myself, _as always. Mo—"

The radio on her hip crackled to life.

"Kimura. Report."

The woman grimaced and grabbed her hand radio. "X snapped, as predicted. I'd call this a complete success…except these fucking  
retards you sent me with can't even make sure a _corpse_ doesn't move. We lost Kinney."

"…" a conversation ensues, then: "Bring X back. She needs to be debriefed, _now._ You can return later for cleanup, if necessary. She  
probably crawled away."

"Alright, boss," Kimura said, then turned and chucked the radio at Laura's head.

She flinched away, but was still hit in her temple.

"I bet your mommy got eaten by a _bear_ or something," Kimura taunted. "Wish I could've watched. But duty calls…fire 'er up, boys." She  
pulled the back doors of the van closed, then looked at Laura again.

Her hand fished in her utility belt, then pulled out a large buck knife, such as one used for hunting.

"I get _so bored_ during roadtrips," Kimura said. "Sucks to be you, X."

**…**

"I—" Emma, her eyes closed, in Cerebra. She'd just witnessed something quite horrible. Laura had been conscious for a few  
moments, and was in some sort of simulation, the kind of training scenario that Logan had described undergoing in his past.

There had been Laura, and her mother, and a lot of blood and violence.

Then nothing.

"Where is she?!" Julian demanded.

"I can't find her," Emma said, her voice low. "She's disappeared again."

It had been like this for two weeks; Julian and the teams searching the countryside, Emma occasionally catching mental glimpses of  
Laura, but unable to discern the location. She said she couldn't even sense what sort of state Laura was in, a fact she attributed to  
the girl being heavily drugged and shielded by some sort of psionic.

He'd only returned to the mansion to change his clothes and eat; this he did in an almost automatic fashion, the fork occasionally  
missing his mouth. He hadn't slept, and the Shrimps were shifted from one caretaker to the next.

"Put the Shrimps on," Scott said suddenly. "I'm sure they want nothing more than their mother, at the moment."

Silence. Everyone secretly wondered why _they_ hadn't thought of this.

"Nate, Rachel," Emma said, looking at the Shrimps, in the corner, with Sofia.

"Can you help me find your mother, darlings?"

"We TWIED," Rachel said, sounding angry and frustrated.

"No buddy LISTENZ to us!" Nate added.

Silence.

"Well…we're listening now," Julian said, feeling even stupider by the moment. He knew he should've thought of the Shrimps,  
right away. His psychic children that shared a hive mind, with Wolverine's feral instincts that would know _instinctively _  
where their mother was.

Emma held up her hand. "Nate…I'm going to talk to you…in your mind. _Show_ me where she is."

A second later she opened her eyes (having closed them for the contact).

"Nevada. "

"To the X-wing," Scott ordered.

**…**

Laura stared dully out of one eye, the other swollen shut. Blood was pouring from her freshly-broken nose; her arm felt broken,  
as did her ankle, and her neck; she was being dragged by her hand through a sterile-looking room, with harsh ceiling lights. Her  
skin was raw, healing slowly from another scent session.

Healing _slowly. _Something was wrong with her. She felt sick, nauseous—sluggish—even though they hadn't drugged her today.

"She's _filthy!_" a man said. "I thought I told you to hose her down first!" He still sounded more amused than angry.

"I figured it's all coming off anyway," Kimura said. She stopped, dropped Laura's hand; then she grabbed a handful of her tangled,  
matted hair and yanked her to her feet, where she dangled, paralyzed.

"True," the man said. He was wearing a lab coat, and a surgical mask. A doctor.

Laura eyed him.

"Oh, sweety," Kimura said, turning Laura to face something—a big metal gurney, with restraints. Metal cuffs, for her limbs, for around her head.

"Weren't you ever _jealous _of your daddy? What's-his-face? Oh, yeah. _Wolverine._" Kimura taunted, her hand like a talon on the girl's shoulder.

The doctor listened, and grinned, in the corner of Laura's vision. She watched the table, her eyes dull. A migraine was causing her eye to twitch;  
she felt like raw meat. Raw, bloody meat, full of acid. An ulcer.

"With his big, bad, adamantium skeleton," Kimura continued. "CLONE, answer me!"

Laura continued to stare at the gurney dully.

_WHAM! _Her head was slammed into the cool metal. She felt her nasal bone crunch further, and her lips split painfully. She thought some teeth  
might have broken.

"_ANSWER ME!" _ Kimura shouted, furious.

Laura was silent, even as her head was pulled up again, and blood ran down her chin, along with bone fragments. The corner of her  
mouth bubbled.

"Now, now," the doctor said mildly. "Load her up. I have it at just the right temperature and it's a bitch to regulate. I keep getting paranoid  
that it'll set…that stuff is _impossible _to scrape off."

"Hah," Kimura said. "You'd know, wouldn't you?"

Laura didn't make a sound as she was hefted onto the table, her skin squeaking against the metal as she slithered like a beached whale,  
and was rolled over. She hoped there would be a mistake with whatever they were doing. They'd slip.

_Maybe my healing…will finally stop, _she thought.

The cuffs snapped closed, with the press of a button. Kimura and the doctor leered down at her, and Laura drew her eyebrows together.

He was familiar.

_Whirrrrrrr. _He was holding something up, something for her to see.

A small power tool—a grinder of some sort.

Now she remembered. _Rice. _The man responsible for the adamantium on her claws. She'd seen him, standing over her before, with a bone-grinder.

She was five years old again.

But—but—she'd—she was confused. She'd _killed _him.

"Let's see how _you_ like being filled with adamantium," Kimura hissed, holding up an airbrush-like device on the other side, and a handful of metal tubes.


	9. 5: Lost and 3:3 found

**  
A/N: **Several people have been PM'ing me recently re: update delays. Please remember that I have school, work, and a relationship / other issues that I am taking care of, not to mention I recently lost my  
grandmother and wanted to make sure mom was OK (in addition to getting over it myself). I will continue to update my stories, but they will come as I have time for them. Thanks for your understanding! ~onelildustbunni

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Lost and" 5 Issue: 3/3 )**

**Chapter 142: found**

* * *

"We go in…and we don't hold back, got it?" Logan said, tightening a wrist strap.

They were in the X-wing, headed towards the location holding Laura.

Julian had been given a different outfit to wear, a grey and black ensemble with a mask. He didn't give a shit about uniforms anymore. He'd go in his underwear, even. Scott had insisted he  
wear it, claiming he didn't want the X-men associated with what was about to happen here.

He wasn't with his team, either. There was Logan, and then some strangers Julian didn't know. Battle-hardened people that had never visited the school before, called in by Logan, when  
he'd found out who they were dealing with.

Logan had taken him aside before they'd boarded the aircraft.

"Kid," he'd said.

"Out of my way," Julian had said.

"No. Listen. Once you get on that plane…you can't go back. Let me handle this. What we're gonna do ain't gonna be pretty, and it ain't gonna be somethin' you can ever look back on  
and feel okay about. We-"

"They're nothing but bacteria," Julian had replied roughly. "I killed them before, and I wasn't a fraction as pissed off as I am now. _Out_ of my way."

So Logan had stepped aside, with a troubled expression.

…

Down the corridor they raced, flicking away militants like flies. No one bothered to put much effort into it; they were bombing the place after, anyways, with the assistance of Candace Burns,  
who had surprisingly volunteered to accompany them. Julian suspected she would be mind-wiped later by Frost, whose expression was odd when she agreed to allow the girl to go along with them.

Odd. He hadn't had such thoughts about what Frost might do before.

He didn't care. All he cared about was that Logan had caught a scent—a whiff of Laura—and they were running along the trail. They'd found many places; Logan said the hallways reeked of her,  
even though the trail was only about a day and a half old. She'd been transferred here, then.

Many of the places that smelled like her had large blood stains on the floor.

…

The door finally caved in, under concussive, painful force from Julian's aching brain. Logan was down the hallway, behind him, far behind him.

Julian looked in. The room was lit softly with green light, in the center of which was—was—a tube, full of greenish-clear fluid, and a floating figure, naked, its skin like a giant bruise, some areas  
covered in just dark veins, some blotched an unhealthy blackish purple color. Her hair floated above her like a dark plume of seaweed.

_Laura. _

Tubes were sticking out of her everywhere, and metal rods, like syringes that had been left in. Every limb, every rib, every bump of her vertebrae.

Bubbles floated out of the sides of the mask attached to her face; a breathing mask. Her eyes were closed.

He approached the tube slowly, and reached out; touched it with his blood-covered fingers. He'd done something quite terrible to extract information from a man in a lab coat, with glasses.

Inside the tube, Laura's eyes opened, slightly, and looked at him without seeing. They were bloodshot, with tinges of yellow to the whites, and had dark rings of pink and black around them. They  
were swollen, as if she was having an allergic reaction of some sort.

Julian hesitated. Would she die if he released her? Was she on some sort of life support? Not much of a life.

He stepped back and sent a wave of energy up the tube's sides, altering the frequency of wavelengths in the air around them to match those of the glass. The tube shattered with an ear-piercing  
noise, and a tsunami of liquid cascaded out the floor.

Laura made a terrified sound inside the mask, her hair now plastered against her shoulders and face. The loss of supporting fluid had brought her to her knees, and she now knelt on the floor of  
the platform, trembling and holding her face in her hands so he couldn't see it.

"It's okay," Julian said soothingly, leaning over the edge towards her and reaching out with his hand. She veered away from it and peered at him, one eye visible between her fingers.

"What did they—"

"Like the improvements?" A woman's voice, horribly familiar. Julian turned.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" he demanded.

Kimura grinned. "Nothing you won't like, I promise! Just zooped her up a little, y'know, like a sportscar you get bored of. Like adding a spoiler, really. Except not. Okay, I lied, you're going to hate it."

"WHAT THE _FUCK_ DID YOU DO TO HER?!"

"It's a surprise. Try hugging her."

"…" Julian turned his head slightly, and eyed the rods still sticking out of Laura's huddled form. "You didn't."

"Oho! Kinda, we did, may—" Kimura stopped, suddenly uncertain, as Julian's gaze turned back to her.

"You're dead," he said.

Kimura grinned. "_Really? _Try me, boy, my skin's unbreakable. You can't hurt me."

_Potatoes, _Julian thought. _Potatoes, at Christmas._

"What if you don't _have_ skin?" he asked, gazing at her, like she was a piece of art he was being asked to critique.

_**SHRRRIP. **_

Kimura's mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her skin had fallen to the floor, with a soft noise, like a pile of laundry; her striated, shining muscles were quite horrible to see. A pool of blood  
was growing around her.

"Whadddid…" Kimura stared at her muscular hands with visible tendons. They were shaking gently, then more violently.

Julian ignored her.

Laura's eyes closed, her head lolling forwards as she was lifted into the air by the same green light that had caused so much damage; Julian ignored this too, turning his back on Kimura and  
heading towards the door.

He met Logan just as the man skidded to a halt at the entrance.

"What—" Logan's mouth opened as he saw Laura. Saw the rods in her body, the same rods _he'd_ pulled out of his skin, about twenty years prior. "Oh, god. NO, no…" his claws slid out. "OUTTA  
my way, Keller, I'll fucking—"

"Don't think you can do anything more," Julian said calmly. "But have fun."

Logan peered into the room, and his expression turned from shock to disgust, but Julian was already a distance down the hall, slowly carrying the unconscious Laura. Speed didn't matter  
anymore; the damage had been done.


	10. 6: Beekeeper 1:2 drifting

**There is an optional tie-in story that begins after the end of this chapter and before next chapter. Please read the footnote for more information.**

**

* * *

**

**Volume: 4 Arc: "beekeeper" 3 Issue: 1/2 )**

**Chapter 143 : drifting**

**

* * *

  
**

"Dear lord," Hank had murmured.

Laura was hooked up to what seemed like millions of wires, millions of tubes, all fulfilling a different function. Kidney dialysis, respiratory machine, pacemaker machine. Her organs  
seemed to be shutting down as her healing factor had been snuffed out; she was rejecting it.

It. The adamantium implants.

Her skin had a deathly green tinge, in addition to the blotches of purple. Her lips were blue, as were her hands and feet. Plus the fact that she was swollen and bloated like a blow  
fish. She was so horrific that it was a silent agreement to keep the Shrimps from her.

"She's handlin' it worse than I did," Logan had said grimly. "She's got poisonin', that's fer sure. They musta done a number on her healin' factor first—or maybe it ain't as strong as mine, I dunno…"

Julian was silent, sitting beside her bed, his face in his hands. He didn't need to analyze the problem, at the moment. She was dying, and there was nothing that could be done to help  
her. Elixir had failed, unable to remove the foreign substance from her blood.

It was just a matter of when she would die, now.

The adamantium couldn't be removed; it had bonded to her bone cells so deeply that such an action would kill her—in an excruciatingly painful way.

Hank had tried to be optimistic, saying her healing factor should kick in at any moment; then her kidneys had shut down, too full of filtered metal to clean her blood any longer.

Then they'd left him alone, with her, probably because looking at her made _them _hurt. She looked like she'd been hit by a bus.

"Julian…" Sofia, at the door.

He didn't answer.

"How is she?"

Julian remained silent. Anyone who asked that was…

"I am sorry," Sofia said softly. "I wish…Laura doesn't deserve this."

"But this is what she gets," Julian said. "This is what she _always _gets. I left her…I should have stayed. I should have fed Kimura a steel wall support the second I saw her."

"Oh, Julian, do…not blame yourself," Sofia said, aghast. "This…none of this is your fault. Do not talk like that. You have a good heart. I know you would never kill _anyone._ That is why I…"  
she trailed off. "I am sorry," she said again instead.

Julian gazed at his hands, and thought about how little people really _knew _him, who he was now. The only person that had any _inkling _about him was dying, because of him, because  
he'd been playing X-man and not doing what needed to be done, not listening to his instincts like he used to do.

"I will listen if you need to talk," Sofia said, lingering, holding the door frame.

"I'm good," Julian said.

She paused, then left the room.

**…**

"_**MMMMMMMMMMMMMM-mmmmmhh," **_Laura groaned into the ventilator, her eyes rolling wildly under the puffed lids.

"She's got a fever," Dr. McCoy said, his paw holding her head still. "We may need to restrain her…and we _must_ bring this down. She's in no state to have her  
enzymes denatured!"

Julian took her hand. It was hot, very hot, and heavier than he remembered it. He stared at her fingers and realized they were even chubbier than before. He wondered,  
in a disconnected way, if her ring would still fit.

"JULIAN! Hold her!" Dr. MCoy was tilting her head back as she thrashed, his paws prying her jaws apart, keeping her from biting her tongue.

He took mental hold of her, sending soothing tingles up her spine. Laura relaxed slightly. This seemed to be what she needed—circulation through movement—something  
he could provide on a much more thorough level.

About the only thing he could do for her.

"Keep doing that," Dr. McCoy said after a moment.

A few moments later, Dr. McCoy managed to take a reading.

"105!" he exclaimed, staring at the thermometer. "Oh my. She's approaching a very dangerous level. If it rises any further, she may not make it."

"You mean, aside from the fact that she's dying of _metal poisoning,_" Julian said angrily.

Dr. McCoy paused.

"Yes," he said, looking down. "I'm sorry, Julian. I don't think there is anything that can help her now. The procedure…the barbarian who put this adamantium in her did not  
do it correctly." He paused. "She wasn't in good shape to begin with. Then…this. Her healing factor's shut down. I've located several bones that did not accept the implants.  
There are free-floating metal particles in her body…in her tissue…I cannot see her surviving for much longer. I did…I did not want to tell you in front of Logan."

Julian was silent.

"Come on." Dr. McCoy put a paw on his shoulder. "We need to get this _down, _now. In that cabinet over there, bring me—"

**…**

"J-julian," came a small, frightened voice from the stretcher, against the woosh of air from the oxygen mask. He looked up immediately. Laura was tilting her head to look  
at him, her face flushed and shining with perspiration, her eyes glassy and distant, but fixed on him.

"A-are you…" she said, her eyes shifting. They looked strange.

His eyes focused past her to the machine at her side. _110 degrees. _

"I'm here," he said, reaching up and taking her swollen hand.

Laura paused. "I can't s-see."

Julian studied her eyes, then stood up and peered into them. "Christ," he said, seeing a film, a silvery sheen. "No wonder. You've got metal in your eyes."

Laura breathed shakily.

"It'll be okay," he said, touching her forehead. "Laura…I'm sorry. For leaving you."

Silence. He thought she'd gone incoherent again, and was about to sit down, when she spoke.

"D-don't be." She paused. "You did…you did what I asked you to d-do. I would be angry…if you had stayed."

Julian considered this. "Yeah, but—"

"N-no. My shrimps…I l-live for my shrimps…and if…" her eyebrows drew together, and she made a gurgly noise. "…if something h-happened…to them…I'd be so pissed."

He stroked her forehead. "I love you, so much…don't leave."

Laura nodded slightly. "I l-love you too."

Strained silence. He leaned over and kissed her forehead, trying not to cry.

"I want m-more," Laura said, her lips against his throat from the motion.

"Huh?"

"M-more shrimps," she said. "I want…promise m-me…if I make it…I can have m-more…I want…"

"Anything," he promised her soothingly, patting her hand.

Laura paused, and suddenly her fingers tightened slightly around his. Her dry lips parted, and she made a few gasps for breath. Her eyes fixed on his, then, louder, she said:

"Middle…middle…inside me…"

"What's that?"

But she closed her eyes and slipped into a coma-like sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Want to know what Laura dreams about in her coma? Look on my author page for 'Helix: Coma Black'. It's my version of House of M, and features (yes) my AU characters in--an AU! Think of that! This story is completely optional to read and none of the events will show up in the Helix story. :-)**


	11. 6: Beekeeper 2:2 insides

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "beekeeper" 6 Issue: 2/2 )**

**Chapter 144 : insides**

* * *

"She said something to me," Julian insisted. "She said 'middle, middle…inside me'. What did she mean?"

"It could have been anything," Dr. McCoy said. "She was delirious."

"No—" Julian watched the doctor as he made notes on his clipboard. "She was conscious, she knew what she was saying. It was important to her…really  
important. She even squeezed my hand."

"Phantoms of a fever, Julian. She was at 110 degrees Fahrenheit, of course she would say things like that. I wouldn't put store in it."

"Dr. McCoy," Julian said, his voice firm. "Please. Check her out—inside. I think she was trying to tell me that something's _there._"

"I am not risking my patient's life, over a psychotic rambling," Dr. McCoy said, just as stern. "I am sorry Julian, but you will need to accept that I know what is best for  
Laura right now. Perhaps you should go, take a break. Eat and have a shower so you can think things over."

"I'm not leaving her," Julian said, his voice cracking. His stomach growled, betraying him.

"I'm _ordering_ you to leave," Dr. McCoy said. "If you don't do it voluntarily…I will ask Ms. Frost to march you out of here via remote control."

**…**

_Middle, middle…inside me. _

Julian let the water flow through his hair, washing away the suds. The water felt good against his still-aching head. He wished the water could wash away the pain, as well  
as the dirt; the words he'd heard Laura say, the words that Dr. McCoy told him meant nothing.

He didn't believe that.

What did she _mean?_

**…**

He was in the cafeteria, poking at a salad in an uninterested manner, when he suddenly figured it out.

"Kid," Logan grunted, stopping by his table. "How're you holding up?"

Julian glared at him in answer.

Logan sat down, uninvited, in the empty seat across from him. "What I saw…"

"Is between me and you," Julian said, his fingers tightening on the fork. "_You_ saw what they did to her. They deserved much worse. I should have done it to every one of them,  
every fucking one." His fork dropped to his plate with a _clatter!_

"We all have regrets, kid," Logan said after a moment. "Never regret not killin' someone. You're a better person for it."

Julian was silent. He looked at Logan. Would he know? This man, who seemed to know everything.

"Laura said something to me."

"Oh?"

Julian paused. "She said…she said she's got something inside her. Making her sick. She said..._'middle…inside me'._"

Logan frowned. "That's jus' the fever talkin', kid. She's been…filled with metal, course she's got somethin' inside her."

Julian shook his head. "No. She _meant_ it. She knew what was going on. Logan—when you—when they did _that_ to _you_—did they use something to stop you from healing while they operated?"

Logan stopped, his features wrinkled in distaste. He didn't like thinking of the procedure—he liked even less to talk about it—but now that the kid mentioned it, there _was_ something there.

"Carbonadium," Logan growled, shoving his chair away from the table. Julian was right behind him.

**…**

_**Tink!**_

The sound of the tiny lump of carbonadium hitting the kidney-shaped metal pan on the other side of the radioactivity shield, as it was released from Dr. McCoy's forceps. His paw, inside  
the glove, shook slightly as he saw the vile piece of metal that had helped cause his patient so much harm.

There was a black circle of dead flesh in the middle of the unconscious Laura's sternum, where the disc had sat, spreading its poison throughout her body.

"My word," he said, reaching over and lifting the pan into the cylinder that had been obtained for it. It was marked 'Radioactive Waste'. He closed the locks tightly and twisted the seal,  
then picked up his cleaning tool and set to gently sucking away the contaminated flesh.

**…**

"Dear me," Dr. McCoy said the next morning. "Her fever has broken. She's dropped to 100.4. Still not ideal but…a dramatic improvement." He paused. "Mr. Keller…I must apologize,  
for not believing you. I still fear it is too late for Laura."

Julian looked at the sleeping, blotchy girl, and was silent for a moment "She said…she couldn't see. She was scared. When I looked in her eyes, there was a film of metal over them."

"Hmm," Dr. McCoy fished in his lab coat pocket and pulled out a small optical flash light, then bent over Laura's head and propped open her eyelid. He examined her eye for a few  
moments. "Yes, yes, I see…the odd metallic sparkle in her Aqueous humor…the fluid just outside her lens…"

"No, I mean a _film,_" Julian said. "It was almost solid silver."

Dr. McCoy considered this, then stepped aside to let Julian look.

"Where'd it go?" he asked after a moment. Her eyes were almost green again, with several miniscule flecks of silver floating near the surface.

A moment later, they had their answer, as two flecks disappeared from view.

"…" Dr. McCoy frowned. "This is unprecedented. Perhaps her body is filtering the metal. I did not think it possible, but perhaps…"

**…**

Over the next three days, they watched in astonishment as Laura's swelling slowly decreased, her normal skin tone peaking through the bruising in minute patches. Every time Dr. McCoy emptied  
the dialysis machine or carried away her bedpan, the fluids were full of bright, silvery metal, some settling on the bottom.

On the fourth day, Laura opened her eyes again, quite suddenly, and returned Julian's gaze. She did so quietly, her eyes shifting around the room in rapid movements, blinking, then repeating the pattern over.

She was very quiet. She responded in mono-syllable whispers; sometimes turning away when she was addressed. Julian sat in silence as well, wondering if he'd ever hear Laura laugh about  
something stupid again, and feeling empty and brittle. He thought of the metal in her body, and realized what he had taken back from the facility was only a shell of the girl that he loved.

Kimura had the insides.

**…**

Later that evening, Laura woke up suddenly and blinked, then she looked over the bed and noted that Julian was sleeping deeply, his head bent forwards. She moved slowly,  
her fingers reaching up to the bag of solution in the IV stand, picking it up, and holding it in a slightly elevated position with one hand. Her other reached down—down to where  
she knew Julian kept what she was looking for—in the pocket of the jacket hanging over the back of his chair. Her fingers slipped in, recognized the packet by touch, and pulled it out.

It was a silver, foil packet, something used often by the couple, as other methods of birth control were ineffective against Laura's healing factor.

She studied it, then made a fist.

_Snkkt… _the tip of her claw emerged from her hand. Just enough for precision work. _Slit! _She very carefully targeted her claw to the center of the packet and pierced just one side,  
then withdrew the cutting implement. _Snkkt…_

Leaning over, she let the package drop back into his pocket, then hurried to put the IV back in its original place.


	12. 7: Not This Again 1:5 probably bad news

**A/N: **The botched, loose stuff was purged. Laura retains an adamantium coated skeleton; however, like Wolverine, her healing factor has kicked in to balance the effects.

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "not this again" 4 Issue: 1/5 )**

**Chapter 138 : probably bad news**

* * *

"Clean as a whistle," Dr. McCoy said happily. "Laura, this is one of the most remarkable recoveries I've ever witnessed. I am glad we didn't lose you."

Laura looked down. Paused. "Dr. McCoy …" she whispered.

"Yes, my dear?" Dr. McCoy was writing something on his clipboard.

"I would like a prenatal vitamin shot."

_**CLATTER! **_

"Excuse me," Dr. McCoy said, picking up the clipboard and adjusting his glasses. "I seem to have misheard you. I thought you said you wish to have another offspring."

"No…that's what I said," Laura replied.

Dr. McCoy stared at her. "You can't be serious."

"I am." Laura met his gaze confidently.

"…" Dr. McCoy rubbed his face with his paw. "Laura…this is a very bad time for you to consider having more children. You have just recovered from a serious, life-threatening  
condition…not to mention the fact that you have an adamantium skeleton which will constantly poison your bloodstream for the rest of your life…and your reproductive organs  
may have been harmed from the metal poisoning…"

"But I can get pregnant?" Laura asked.

Dr. McCoy shook his head. "I strongly advise you…in all my official capacity as your physician…_no more children, _Laura."

Laura was silent again.

…

Julian stopped, pushed her away by her shoulders. "Are you _sure? _Just a week ago…you nearly died, you know. You don't—I can wait. Really."

They were alone, in his old room in the mansion, where he'd slept for the nights that Laura had been healthier but still confined to her hospital bed. She'd just been discharged  
by Dr. McCoy, and the first thing she had done—upon his closing the door—was to come onto him, quite strongly and surprisingly.

He supposed it made sense. She'd been quiet all day, her eyes different—he put it down to trauma, and shock—and pain—and then this, this was like a dam bursting, her  
desperation to feel something else escaping her control.

"Laura…" he ducked her attempt to kiss him, and backed up against the bathroom door. "C'mon, I'm serious. Take it easy."

"No." It was more like a snarl than a word. Startling. Her eyes flashed; despite his decision that they wouldn't do anything, he found it difficult to resist. Her fingers reached  
into his pocket, found a packet, and then she pressed it to his chest with a burning look. "Now," she said firmly.

"…who am I to say no?" Julian relented, his face breaking into a slight grin—for the first time in what must have been a month.

**…**

"How is Laura settling?" Dr. McCoy asked, the next morning, seeing Julian in the cafeteria, his hair rumpled and his general appearance that of _tired. _He was standing in the line, holding a tray.

"She's…settling," Julian said, appearing to conceal amusement.

Dr. McCoy smiled. It was good to see the boy lightening up; he'd been so serious, and tragic (for good reason) of late. He didn't envy the boy's responsibilities—having loved ones, and a  
family of young children—in such an unforgiving world as they now seemed to be living in.

Not that it was forgiving before, but now was worse than ever.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do for you," Dr. McCoy said, patting his shoulder and moving on. Behind him, he heard one of Julian's friends—the pile of rocks named Santo—call the boy's  
name: 'Keller! How's she doing?'

Dr. McCoy picked up a tray, about to tune out of the conversation.

"She's doing great. Good as new."

Julian paused. Then he said something that would not have been so odd if Dr. McCoy didn't know a certain something, an outrageous question Laura had asked him during their last appointment.

_Preposterous, _he told himself.

"Dude—I can hardly keep up. It's great. It's like she's preggos all over again…without the preggos part."

Dr. McCoy frowned. It was none of his concern, definitely not. What on _earth_ was he thinking? He realized he was holding the tray and tuning in with his excellent, refined sense of hearing.

"Oh really?" Santo asked.

"First thing. She totally jumped my bones. I was telling her no, and _she_ insisted. I dunno how she knew—I didn't even know I had one left—but she just reached into my pocket and pulled out a—"

"Julian," Dr. McCoy called, across the cafeteria. "Might I see you in my office for a moment?"

The boy traded looks with his friend, shrugged, then followed his ex-teacher out of the cafeteria.

**…**

"…"

Julian broke into a grin, and began to laugh. "That's a good one," he chortled.

"I wish I found it amusing, Mr. Keller," Dr. McCoy said gravely. "Oh, if only. But I'm afraid I'm entirely serious. Laura was requesting this only yesterday morning, during her final examination before I discharged her."

"Yeah, right. She's not _stupid,_ Dr. McCoy." Even as he said the words, Julian paled, remembering something as well. Something Laura had said to him, feverish, holding his hand very tightly.

"_M-more shrimps," she said. "I want…promise m-me…if I make it…I can have m-more…I want…" _

"That's_** BULLSHIT**_," Julian said loudly, not speaking to Dr. McCoy, but answering to his own doubtful thoughts. "No fucking way would she—oh, sorry, I forgot you were here…"

"I have temporarily grown deaf," Dr. McCoy assured him.

**…**

Emma Frost opened her pale blue eyes and looked at her ex-student grimly. She'd just discovered something rather disturbing—something that hadn't been evident at 'first glance'.

"Do you recall…perhaps, when Laura delivered the twins?" she asked.

Julian nodded. "Kind of hard to forget. She went bat-shit crazy for a week."

"The state Laura is in now…is similar," Emma said slowly. "She is of two consciousness; a type of multiple personality disorder. There is the normal Laura, that you know…and there is  
the other version of her, a feral, nurturing mindset. It has somehow integrated with her normal responses in a way that allows for unconscious exchange of control. I believe that, in  
addition to the adamantium implants, she was subject to extreme psychological trauma that may have caused such a shift."

Silence. Julian turned pale.

"…what? What are you talking about?"

"I cannot define the cause. It is in her subconscious, and her brain is attempting to heal over the tainted memories. They were so traumatic that part of her has been driven into  
an automatic state…in essence, her feral instincts have turned on."

"So…she was tortured?" Julian asked, glaring at Emma.

Emma closed her eyes. "I believe so."

"You knew this, and you didn't tell me?"

"Hellion—"

"Fuck _that! _I've had it with you X-men! You're nothing but bullshit! How could you keep something like that from me, you—"

"Mr. Keller, that will be quite enough," Emma said firmly. "I chose not to inform you because the priority was to recover Laura, and that would have been delayed if you had begun  
to argue. Now the priority is _not_ to be selfish, but to help her recuperate—and keep her safe."

Julian stopped. "Safe?"

"I do not believe this was an isolated incident," Emma said, her eyebrows drawn together. "This is only the beginning, of whatever it is."

"So you think someone's trying to get to Laura?" Julian asked.

"Perhaps."

"Well, they kind of succeeded, didn't they?!" he demanded. "I swear, I've never seen anyone so stupid."

"_Mr. Keller." _

Julian clenched his fists. "Give me something to respect and I _will. _Until then…"

Emma closed her eyes, seeming to will herself to be patient. "Hellion. I cannot do anything for Laura at this moment. These unfavorable responses are primal, and I am unable to reach  
either Logan or said Laura in such a state. You will have to wait this out. But above all, you must _not_ give into her demands."

Julian's look of angry defiance turned into one of sheepishness. "Er…look, if I bring her here…will you fix her?"

Emma raised her eyebrow. "I can try," she said.

**…**

Laura's lax expression suddenly tightened; she rolled her eyes, blinked, and made a disgruntled face. Then her eyelids slid shut, she gasped slightly, and leaned back in her seat.

"not projects…wha?"

Julian watched her intently (almost falling out of his chair to do so). This was very promising; it was the most Laura-like response he'd seen in a week and a half, since she'd woken up.

Emma opened her eyes. "Welcome back, Laura," she said.

Laura's fingers tightened on the edges of her armrests; Julian noted they turned white very quickly, possibly due to the fact that her bones were now slightly larger. "…" she remained  
seated with her mouth open as she slowly began to put two and two together.

Then…

"Oh…_fuck_ me! They _so_ did not," she said, her tone outraged.

Julian relaxed. _This_ was definitely Laura.

"That fucking bitch! Where'd she go, I'm going to—_KELLER! _I need you to pull out someone's brains through their nose for me. Or her intestines, I'm not all that particular right now—AHH!"

Laura had tried to make a gesture, and instead her finger had gone up her nostril; possibly because she was uncoordinated with the adamantium skeleton.

"Now we know where young Nathan gets it," Emma said dryly.

"…" Laura slowly pulled her finger away. "What—what's _wrong_ with me? Am I on something, or—"

"You don't remember?" Julian asked.

"All I know is that crazy bitch showed up…and…I don't really want to think about it, but…" Laura's eyebrows drew together, as she took in Julian's appearance.

He hadn't bothered with it for about three and a half weeks, and the change was noticeable.

"Oh my eff, you _can_ grow facial hair," she said, sounding amazed.

"…" Emma made an impatient noise. She had been hopeful that Laura would elaborate on her mental situation, on some memories; but, as per usual, the girl had wandered off onto a  
different train of thought.

"Laura—" Julian also wanted her to focus.

"You look like a vagrant," Laura said, wrinkling her nose. "Get a haircut, asshole!"

" Please, concen—"

"How long was I _out_ for?" Laura asked. "I mean, if Keller's grown up enough to have more than peach fuzz…hell, I thought that would _never_ happen. Am I dead? Is this some weird, perverted form of—"

"LAURA! _Focus! _This is really important!" Julian snapped, his teeth gritted, although his agitation was over an entirely different matter than Frost's. "_What do you remember about the past few weeks?!" _

Laura fell silent. Then…"It's all a blur," she said, although he doubted that was the truth.

**…**

He couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned while Laura slept soundly. All he could think of was _what if, what if, what if_. It was worse than torture. It even eclipsed the slow, hopeful sensation that had  
come with the realization that Laura was still in there, unchanged.

He felt the bed depress, as Laura suddenly sat up in the dark. He froze, turned his head slightly, watched her lumber across the carpet to the washroom. After a few moments she managed to enter  
through the doorway; about a minute after that (and with a bit of extra noise as she groped for the doorknob) she succeeded in closing the door; he leapt to his feet and ran after her, then pressed  
his ear up against the wood. Listening for sounds of—

The door opened.

Julian blinked in surprise. Then he remembered how accurate her hearing was.

"…" Laura raised her eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Nothing," he said. "Er, I just…wanted to make sure you're really okay."

"I'm fine," she said. She smiled slightly. "Sweet of you." She reached out to touch his face rather clumsily; he jerked backwards, his eyes wide.

"Are _you_ okay?" Laura asked, raising her eyebrow.

"Fine," he said, turning back to the bed. Thoughts swirled through his head, paranoid thoughts. One time didn't necessarily do the trick. What if she got to him while he was _sleeping? _

**…**

"If I can somehow bring you a urine sample, can you run a test on it?" Julian blurted. He knew it was probably the most awkward thing he'd said this year, but he was dying, dying of the thought  
that there might be _more_ trouble.

He hadn't slept in three nights.

Dr. McCoy blinked at him, across the desk.

"Mr. Keller…what I said…I hope you are not allowing the thought to consume you."

"Ohhh," Julian ran his hand through his uncut hair and gave Dr. McCoy an amused look. "What the hell did you _think_ it would do? You told me there's a chance that she's making _more_. Right now,  
while the shit's hit the fan already and we're knee deep. Do you really think I could sleep at night after that? As in _ever again_?"

Dr. McCoy sighed.

"Mr. Keller—I don't see how it is possible for you to obtain a sample without her awareness. You will need to ask her."

"Like she'll let me!" Julian said. "I've got it all planned out, seriously. Leave it to me."

"Very well," Dr. McCoy said skeptically. "A blood sample would do as well…even better. It might be easier to obtain."

"Oh." Julian paused. "Alright. I can get that, no problem."

Dr. McCoy eyed him for a moment. "Mr. Keller, I was implying that you bring her for a check-up, so _I_ can take it."

"Oh." Julian flushed. "I haven't slept for a bit."

"So I can see."

**…**

"LAURA!" Cessily and Nori were running towards her as they spotted her in the hallway, with Julian, returning from a visit to the Shrimps, whom she was frantic to see. She'd parted with them reluctantly,  
which surprised both Logan and Julian. If she was in a feral state, why was she allowing herself to be separated from her offspring so easily?

"Ohmigod! I can't believe you're _okay!" _Cessily said.

"I heard you were hooked up on every machine we've got," Nori said.

Laura shrugged. "I'm alright now."

Silence. The smiles began to fade as they realized something was different in Laura's reaction.

Nori cleared her throat.

"Quite something, huh? Nearly dying." She was still shaken from her Legacy experience; she woke up at night, shaking and sweating still, wondering if it was still in her and she would just explode all of a sudden.

"Yes." Laura looked down.

Silence.

"It's even worse for the people that care about you guys, you know," Julian said, seeing that everyone was uncomfortable. "I'm kind of glad you didn't die either, Ashida. I'd have missed your bright, sunny disposition."

"Shut up, Keller," Nori said, but she grinned. "Hope you're not mad I didn't visit your bedside, Laura…got told you came to mine. I was still kinda hanging by a thread myself."

"We should start the near-death club," Laura said, in a manner more of her usual self. "We could have like little tombstones as our symbol."

"Hah, I guess like three-quarters of the population here would qualify," Nori said thoughtfully. "In fact, it's getting hard to meet people that _haven't_ died at least once. Their innocence is refreshing."

"You can be the president, seeing as you cause a lot of the experiences," Laura commented to Julian, who flushed slightly. "Fuck you," he said helplessly.

**…**

"I don't see why I need more tests," Laura grumbled as Dr. McCoy pricked her skin with the syringe. "You said I was okay."

"Every week, Laura, for the next month," Dr. McCoy said calmly. "It's standard procedure, whether you're okay or not."

Julian watched the blood fill the vial, his heart pounding in his ears. There was the answer. _Oh, god, please no, _he thought. _If it's not, I will never, ever again be so stupid, I promise, I…_

"Why is your heart beating so fast, Keller?" Laura asked suspiciously.

"Er—I hate the sight of blood," he said.

"No you don't…you're the one who took your brother to get his—"

"I do now!" he said lamely, in a panicked manner.

Dr. McCoy shook his head and capped the vial. "You are free to go, Laura. As far as I can ascertain, you are still the picture of perfect health. I will see you on Friday for your next check-up."

He looked at Julian. "Take care of her."

_And don't do anything stupid, _his glance said very sternly.


	13. 7: NTA 2:5 don't shoot the messenger

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "not this again" 7 Issue: 2/5 )**

**Chapter 146 : don't shoot the messenger**

* * *

During the time following the test, Julian began to relax. Laura seemed fine—just fine. No vomiting, no illness, no complaints—fine. Dr. McCoy had told him he would have the  
results the next day; then a situation requiring the senior team occurred, and it was pushed to the next day—and the next.

By the time Dr. McCoy finally asked him to come see him (a message transmitted by Emma), Julian was positive that there was nothing to worry about. He headed down to the  
doctor's office, thinking about how they should probably go back to their house that evening and take the Shrimps with them, now that things were quieting down a bit. The Legacy  
attacks had lessened gradually; either the attacker was biding his time, or the goal had been accomplished.

If the goal was Laura, then it had.

He realized, as he knocked on Dr. McCoy's door, that he hadn't thought about Brian for the last night or two. He felt guilty, but felt his friend would not have blamed him.

_Past tense. _He swallowed.

The door opened, and Dr. McCoy looked at him grimly.

"Ah," he said. "Mr. Keller. Come in."

Julian stood rooted to the floor in shock. _No. _He'd just seen something in Dr. McCoy's face that he'd decided wasn't possible.

"Please, come in."

Julian slowly unlocked his limbs enough to comply.

**…**

"No, no, no. Not now. No…"

"I'm afraid so."

"She's not healthy enough," Julian said pleadingly.

"You might have thought of that then." Dr. McCoy's voice was stern. "It is too late now. Now, you must cope, no matter how hard it may be."

Julian sat with his head bowed.

"You will need to break the news to her. It is entirely possible that Laura is unaware of her unconscious actions in her conscious state. The two persona may be entirely separate."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I'm afraid I'm not."

"I am _not_ telling _her_ that she's pregnant. She can find out for herself!"

"Mr. Keller."

"I swear to god!"

"_Mr. Keller. _She must be alerted."

Julian bit his lip.

**…**

"God…" Laura groaned, leaning her head back on the sofa. She ached all over, and her limbs felt like lead. She was vaguely uncoordinated with all her moves, as her bones were now  
slightly heavier; however, she seemed determined to not let it slow her down.

They had moved back into their house; the Shrimps were in their cribs, sleeping deeply after a bouncy reunion with their mother; James's snores could be heard from the bedroom.

Julian hovered in the kitchen, unable to look at Laura and drop the next bomb of shit on her, after what she'd just been through.

_Just do it,_ he thought angrily, playing with his keys in his pocket. _It's not going to go away. She'll notice it eventually. How do you think they find these things out?!_

_Let her find out on her own. _

He teetered. _After all she's been through? That's unfair. And how are you going to act surprised? 'Oh, SHIT! Really?' It'll be totally fake. _He knew from experience that he could not  
replicate the shock of learning he was responsible for yet another creature. He'd experienced it twice now—three times if he counted the discovery that he was James's guardian—  
and it was just something he couldn't do without genuine surprise. Laura would smell the lie, too.

"Bring me a beer," Laura said from the couch, sounding tired and drawn.

He froze. Things had just gotten even more urgent.

How did he end up in these awkward situations? He cursed his luck silently.

"Laura…uh…we have to talk," he said, rubbing his neck.

"Yeah, sure. We can talk over beer. _ROOF!_"

"Fuck that. You're clumsier than a bear right now. I'm not taking you up on a high structure so you can fall and break all your bones."

"Hello? I think that was the _point_ of the adamantium thing," Laura said. "My god, Keller, do you even _think_ before you open your mouth?"

"Apparently not," Julian said, feeling stupid. "Well…I don't feel like going up there right now. I have to say this now, while I've got the nerve." He paused.

"I…um…you're…apparently, I knocked you up again. I mean, for the first time."

A giant pause. Laura turned her head and stared at him. He gripped his keys till they almost cut his skin. "Yeah," he said lamely.

"I don't even know how to respond to that," Laura said, her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "First of all…what the eff are you talking about? I feel just _fine,_ I'm definitely  
not…we haven't even—"

"Oh, we did. Apparently you weren't there," Julian said, looking away.

"…" Laura drew back. "…what?"

"Frost explained it all to me. You…um…you have some funny shit going on with your wiring right now. From all the trauma. I get that. But, uh, I totally couldn't tell…and your  
little friend seemed to only want one thing."

Laura digested this. She hadn't come to terms yet with the entire experience; it was so large and overwhelming that in her mind it was sealed up, like a parcel; she'd added  
it to the memories of 'when she was five', which were unrelated to her current existence. Logically speaking, she wasn't surprised to hear that she had developed a different  
method of coping with the trauma during the past few weeks.

But she was surprised that Julian hadn't noticed something was up.

And offended.

"You couldn't _tell?_" she asked.

"No." Julian looked down now, anywhere but at the incredulous, outraged Laura.

"You weren't yourself. I thought you were just…traumatized. I didn't realize what was happening until Dr. McCoy told me something you asked him…you asked him for some shit."

Laura paused. "But…I feel fine. Aside from the all-consuming ache that is my body, I mean."

"Dr. McCoy ran a blood test," Julian said.

"!" Laura glared at him. "I _knew_ something funny was up with that!"

"Well, how did you expect me to explain it to you? It's a pretty awkward situation! Isn't it like the girl's _job_ to announce these things?"

Laura sighed, rubbed her face. Julian's cheeks were beat-red, partially from embarrassment at his mistake, partially from terror—both about Laura's reaction and the magnitude  
of trouble this situation could bring.

"I can't deal with this right now," Laura said calmly. "Bring me a beer, and I'll think about this tomorrow. Good enough?"

"Laura—you can't drink." That was the last thing they needed.

"_God damnit!_" She threw the pillow off the couch in frustration. "Fine! Bring me the most sugar-filled thing we have in the fridge then! Oh, and rub my feet." She swept her  
legs up and wiggled her toes in the air.

Julian stared at her, his face frozen in a wince as he was reminded of the months of servitude preceding the Shrimps.

**…**

Sitting at a café, with mugs of a steaming drink in front of each of them.

"So we're keeping it," Julian said.

"Of course."

"No chance…"

"Forget it, Keller. You broke it, you bought it."

"This isn't just _my_ fault!"

"Is that what you want to name it?"

"Fuck you."

"You kind of did."

Julian looked away, gritting his teeth. "Shut up."

Laura took a sip of the beverage. "Well, look at it this way…I guess we're both equally to blame…and it won't be as hard as the first ones, right? We're already set up to this sort of  
lifestyle…and we have all the gear for it."

"You totally want it, too." Julian glared at her.

"I wouldn't have planned it for this _exact_ second if I hadn't been drugged the hell up and driven crazy—and then taken advantage of—but yes, I did want more," Laura said flatly.

"More…" Julian's eyes widened. "Oh, my god, what if you have _more than one? _LAURA—" he covered his mouth in terror.

Laura looked nervous too. "Shut up."

They both glanced down at her stomach, unwillingly, wondering what horrors it contained for them. Knowing now what they knew about Laura's physiology.

"Well…Angel manages somehow," Laura pointed out weakly. "She's got six."

"We're barely in control of the Shrimps as it is. And you're no help at all right now. You can hardly pick them up."

"Keller, just stop talking. We can't take it back _now._"

More silence. Then Julian burst into tears, real tears.

"Oh my eff—_Keller! _Hold it together!" Laura whispered in embarrassment, realizing people were staring at them. She couldn't understand why he had chosen _now_ to break  
down. It wasn't as if he hadn't had opportunities. His father had died; his mother had abandoned him; then his friends had become the victims of horrible hate crimes,  
one by one. _She_ had nearly died, the victim of a horrible experiment.

Yet this was the incident he chose to break down over. Laura was mortified now, too, and very conspicuous, sitting at a café on a busy street with a slightly hysterical boy.

She kicked his shin under the table.

"It's t-too much," Julian groaned, covering his face. At least he seemed calmer. "I don't understand…how it could possibly get worse."

"Shut up. I think we should look at this as a _good_ thing," Laura said firmly. "A happy thing. I _know_ you loved it when the Shrimps were tiny."

Julian grimaced. "Aside from having my hair pulled? And my sleep interrupted every freakin' night? Laura, they didn't puke on _you, _they waited till _I_ picked them up. I only like  
them _now, _when they're starting to respect me as a human being." He paused. "And I have a team to lead. I can't be home every second with you like having a baby will  
require. I can't just quit, it's my _duty_, especially now, with the shit that's been happening lately."

Laura was silent, her face downturned.

He felt bad. "…look, I didn't mean it the way it sounded…I wouldn't give the Shrimps up for anything, you know that. And what I went through for them was totally worth  
it. But…I mean…this is going to suck, and I'm not happy about it."

"You just said it," Laura said urgently. "What you went through for them was _worth it._ Don't you see? After a while…you'll have something—someone—to show for all your hard work."

Julian examined his mug. "Maybe. I can't really say right now."

Laura paused. "I think…I don't know for sure…but I think this might help. Help me deal." She examined his mug too. "Maybe if I keep busy, I won't need to poke at it  
much. Something along those lines."

He considered this. "We'll certainly be busy."

Laura reached over the table and took his hand. "You told me a while ago…we're in this together, right?"

"Yeah."

He looked at their joined hands, then at her, and they traded uneasy smiles.


	14. 7: Not This Again 3:5 news

**A/N: **Blah, stupid life, getting in the way of my updates, eh? Here's the next chapter. Enjoy! PS- picking up my Second Coming issues tomorrow, I accidentally clicked on a spoiler that showed something -quite-  
traumatic happening to Julian...with Laura looking horrified in the background. Eeeep! x_X

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "not this again" 7 Issue: 3/5 )**

**Chapter 147 : news**

* * *

Logan stared at Laura, who in turn was staring at him (in a manner somewhat similar to the time she'd announced her marriage to 'the punk'). It was odd how Laura milked situations  
for all they were worth; she seemed to thrive on shocking people. These shocks could range from pranks to enormous lifestyle changes, such as now.

He thought he felt his heart freeze in his chest.

"Yer kidding," he said, unintentionally slurring his words. Logan had a habit—a habit that sometimes annoyed him—of contracting some of his vowels. He wasn't sure when or where he'd  
picked it up (or if he'd been taught it at a young age; who was to know how a child of turn-of-the-century Alberta spoke?), but he _was_ aware that it made him sound like a redneck.

Logan didn't care all that much for other people's opinions, but occasionally the odd one annoyed him. Such as people assuming his interests included beer, cigars, and  
motorcycles. Logan was actually fluent in about five languages, highly trained in military tactics (including a complete world history of battle), field first aid and basic  
chemistry; he held two Bachelor of Science degrees, one in History and one in English, that he had completed 'for the hell of it' while at Xavier's, and he owned a collection  
of classic books that rivaled the Professor's. He collected antiques. He owned some high-priced suits that he left in his closet because he didn't feel like dressing up for  
a bunch of pizza-faced teenagers.

Despite all this, apparently, he was a redneck.

And Laura was now dragging out this quality, staring at him with what must be a mirror image of his expression (because she was his clone, how weird was _that_).

Like a fish, with wide eyes, her a mouth hanging slightly open.

She shook her head, no.

"Jesus Christ!" Logan exclaimed. _More_ of the little hell-raisers that had terrorized him for the past two years that they'd been alive. That had destroyed half his little  
apartment, removing anything that was lightly attached, like a team of miniature, telekinetic wrecking balls. Not only that, but he'd suffered physically at the hands  
of the boy, Nate.

Over the last year, Nate had stabbed him two hundred and thirteen times; he had electrocuted him when forced to take a bath (setting Logan's hair on fire and  
subsequently the curtains); he had destroyed a two-hundred-year-old book of poetry that Logan had treasured above all his other possessions (drawing pictures  
of dinosaurs in crayons all over almost every page); he had broken Logan's laptop by spilling apple juice all over the keyboard; he had caused a large spiral fracture  
in Logan's LCD flat-screen TV (not to mention the twenty or so monitors he had damaged in Costco, an adventure in which had resulted with Logan being imprisoned  
for four hours while waiting for Frost to secure his release); he had even broken the precious disc containing Logan's weapon X files (thank god he had backed them  
up, yes, on the lap top Nate had later broken but he'd had the sense to make other copies before then).

It went on and on.

And Laura had just announced there was going to be _more. _

_More? _

"H-how…" Logan paused, cleared his throat (he'd never stuttered before). "How many, this time?"

"Eight," Laura said.

_Snikt. _

She threw back her head and laughed. "OHMIGOD, your FACE! AHAHAHAHA! No, we don't know yet. It's too soon. You can put them back in now, Mr. Mum."

Logan felt a strong urge to hunt down Laura's creators and show them just how thankful he was that they'd made such an irritating clone of him, in female form,  
so he couldn't teach her a lesson. Then he remembered they'd already _done_ that; and what Laura had suffered at their hands.

His initial irritation softened. "God damnit, half-pint, I'm an old man. Don't play with me like that!"

"You'd totally have done it, if you could," Laura teased. "Having a uterus is _awesome._ Best joke ever."

Logan snarled. "Where's your man? I'm gonna _castrate_ him, that sonuva—"

"He's somewhere safe," Laura said, unimpressed with this threat. "You're not going to lay a single finger on him, except in congratulations."

"And _why_ would I do that?" Logan snapped.

Laura sighed. "Because…he's taken it really well, I think. It's not…it's not really his fault." She paused, then brightened, thinking of a way to explain it. "You'd  
understand. You know that nifty berserking thing you have?"

Logan blinked. This was the closest they'd come to discussing the trauma.

"Well, being your clone, it goes with the trend that I have it to. But mine's much more awesome…guess what _I_ do?"

"Don't!" Logan barked, holding up his hand. Laura obviously wasn't ready to talk about it on serious terms, and anything she said was likely to be full of  
rude innuendo. "Don't wanna know. _Jesus._ I hate you kids, all o' ya. Dunno what I _did _to deserve you, but it must've been hella bad…"

"Oh, come now, you don't mean that," Laura said matter-of-factly. "You're totally thrilled. You love the Shrimps, and the second you see a new model you'll be all  
over it. Might even get you away from Assface—er, I mean Daken."

Logan gave her an annoyed look. "Laura—"

She fixed him with a direct look. "That's the most love for him you'll ever get out of me, Logan. Be happy with it. Thank god _my _kids are much prettier."

Logan snorted, despite himself. "Get out of my hair, clone. Gotta finish setting up for class. Hell, why'd you tell me _now?_ You _know_ I'll take it out on the students."

"I know," Laura said, her eyes glittering and the corners of her mouth turning up in a delighted grin. "Wish I could stay and watch, but…places to go, people to surprise, y'know?"

Logan waved her away.

**…**

"We figured the best way to fight oppression is passive resistance. So while _they_ try to kill us off, we'll just undo their work from the other end!" Laura said  
enthusiastically. "For every mutant that they explode, we'll make five more. I can churn 'em out like an easy-bake oven. It's like the best plan ever."

Scott and Emma stared at her, speechless.

"Ah-heh," Laura said, enjoying their expressions. "You know I'm just messing with you…right?"

"It's hard to tell with you sometimes, Laura," Scott said, although he allowed a smile (of relief) to cross his face as he folded his arms "You're off the team, of course."

"I thought I already was, seeing as I can just barely walk," she replied. "Unless you were planning to use me for air bombing or something. You know…drop me  
from a good height and hope I hit the target…"

"Hardly," Emma said, tapping her pencil on the desk. Both the headmaster and headmistress had frozen in place at Laura's announcement; Emma's pencil lead  
had audibly snapped from the sudden pressure, leaving a mark on her desk.

"Well…I believe congratulations are in order," Emma said, recovering. "How far along are you?"

"Maybe a week, or two." Laura paused. "It's a long story, involving conspiracy, embarrassment and awkward situations. Oh, by the way, Dr. McCoy really doesn't  
take the patient confidentiality thing all that seriously."

"I see," Scott said, rubbing his chin. "What…"

"Why don't you just ask him? I'm sure he'll be _more_ than happy to have another pair of ears to spread it to," Laura said, her voice suddenly scathing.

Silence.

"Hormones," Laura said dismissively, waving her hand in the air like nothing odd had transpired. "Anyways, I have to go home and cook supper, so I'll see you later."

"Take care," Scott said in a distant voice, slightly disturbed.

**…**

"Who'd you tell?" Julian asked Laura in an undertone, nervously, as he unzipped his uniform jacket, pretending to peer into the pot of macaroni on the stove (for the benefit of  
James, who was doing homework at the kitchen table, and who hadn't been informed yet).

"Tell?" Laura blinked, still holding the pasta spoon. "_OH!_ Just Logan…and the big heads. You know…it's early, don't know how it'll go, right?"

"Right," Julian said, relieved. He paused. "You didn't—" he nodded slightly to James, apprehensive. He knew the boy would be as difficult as possible, and that any criticism of his  
person would be in the future answered with snide comments about his latest blunder.

Laura noticed his apprehension. "Totally forgot! HEY _EMO!_"

"No—Laura, I'll tell him later," Julian hissed, grabbing her wrist. Thankfully his brother appeared to be ignoring them completely. He pulled her towards the bedroom and closed  
the door, consciously aware of Laura's raised eyebrow.

"Look, I just feel _awkward_ about it, alright? It's weird to tell someone that saw _you_ grow up that you're having a kid."

"Because you don't have them already. I see how that makes total sense."

"Shut up. I'll tell him, just give me time, alright?"

Laura folded her arms, rolled her eyes, made an impatient noise. "Fine. But remember, it's not something you can sweep under the rug."

"I'm well aware of that," Julian said uneasily. "Did you try your mom?"

"Yeah," Laura said. "Still can't get hold of her…and the news keeps piling up. I guess I'll call her back tomorrow."

Julian watched her carefully. "What are you going to tell her?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of 'some douchebag knocked me up', but I can get technical if you'd like and say you actually got it in _yourself_ this time…that was  
totally a ten-point shot," Laura said, grinning.

He rolled his eyes. "No, the…implants."

Laura stared at him, then started laughing her head off. He watched, vaguely annoyed but thinking that perhaps it was a hysterical reaction to the thought of the horror she'd been  
subject to, but then she spoke (about a minute later).

"I'll say I starred on extreme makeover—adamantium edition," she wheezed.

"Oh my _god,_" Julian said, definitely annoyed now. "Laura, seriously, I'm worried that you seem to gloss over it so easily. You were like a _puppy_ when I found you. You can't just go back  
to normal like this. Like—_snap—_all better."

Laura raised her eyebrow. "You'd rather I be depressed?"

"No, that's not what I—"

"I can cry if you want, I can go lie on the sofa and just quit living," Laura said, her voice even.

"No—I'm just concerned that you're completely unaffected," he said.

She paused.

"Julian…I've already lived this, all of this, when I was five years old." Laura was staring him down. "I grew up _then. _There's nothing more anyone can do to me that will change me, make  
me any more unstable than I already am. The memories are all the same. One and one make one. Do you understand me?"

He took a while to answer. Thought of his own life, and how he'd dealt so far, the way that he was coping, and had been coping. He could, in a way, see Laura's logic to the situation.

"Yes," he said.

"Good." Laura paused. "And…I don't want you to treat me differently. I don't want you to think you need to be _here_ all the time, just because Kimura might be lurking. If I ever see that  
goddamn bitch again…" Apparently she had no memory of being recovered.

"I don't think you need to worry," Julian said quietly. "I took care of it."

Silence. They both knew what he meant.

Laura paused. "That's why you're not walking around with a clenched ass, huh?"

"Pretty much. And I never do that."

"Only when you're really mad."

"Hey, it's the only way to stay in shape," Julian agreed. "Anger is like a total anaerobic exercise."

"No wonder Logan's so built," Laura commented.


	15. 7: Not This Again 4:5 fear

**A/N: **I would like to note that I wrote this chapter quite a bit ago; well before the Selene arc came along in the comics and utilized Blink. Be warned, this chapter is graphic.

**

* * *

( Volume: 4 Arc: "not this again" 4 Issue: 4/5 )**

**Chapter 148 : fear**

* * *

Later that night, Julian was the one to bolt upright, look around, then reach out to the wardrobe, his eyes glowing. Laura watched him, feeling a small, surprising sense of loss;  
she was so used to going with him by now that it felt strange to lay in bed while he struggled to step into his boots, throwing his pajamas around the room in a sleep-bewildered fashion.

"Where?" she asked, her voice small.

Julian paused. "Madison Square Gardens," he said, his voice weary.

Laura swallowed. She knew that there was a large conference being held their the next day. If the team failed…

The results could be disastrous.

And she didn't want him to go, she realized, seeing him finish zipping up the front. He was fragile, he'd be killed so easily…_don't be paranoid. _He leaned over the bed, kissed her forehead  
quickly, then ran for the door. Moments later, a sharp _crack! _resounded through the air as he left Laura behind (although she could hear the roar for a while afterward, thanks to her hearing range).

**…**

The next morning, as Laura was preparing the toddler's breakfast (creamed cereal and fruit), Nate suddenly became agitated, followed by Rachel, whose eyebrows drew together.

"Where Joo?" Nate asked.

Laura closed her eyes. Despite the fact that one parent was often off somewhere—especially when they had been at school—they had always made an effort to sit down at breakfast together  
with the Shrimps, having agreed that it was important to have family time (since neither of _them_ had that as children; Julian's being elsewhere, conducting business; while Laura simply didn't _  
have_ a family). This was the first time (not counting Laura's abduction) that they had broken the pattern.

"Julian's doing something important," she said, pouring the cereal into small bowls with happy faces painted around the edges. Nate's had a large chip on the edge from some mishap or another  
(in his earlier stage of life, the boy had used it as a helmet and pretended to be a soldier).

"Weeeally?" Nate's eyes were round in his little patterned face. "What's impowtant mean, mum?"

"It means that he's out being a fireman," Laura said, figuring that would explain the situation to Nate (who had become fascinated with firefighters, possibly because of their old squad uniforms).

"Weeeally?" Nate paused. "You mean…he fightin' bad guys?"

"Yes." Laura poured in a little bit of milk, paused, then felt generous and added a bit more. Nate loved milk.

"I wan' go too!" Nate said. "I can help Joo!"

Laura brought the bowls over, moving slowly so as not to spill them (slower than normal, because her joints were still stiff and jerky). "You're too little, Nate."

"No I not!" Nate said, raising his voice. "I wan' go! I make bad guys sweep!"

Laura put Nate's bowl in front of him, then ruffled his hair. The boy was only technically a year and a half old (with his healing factor, about three years), but he had an astonishingly thick head  
of black hair, that twirled up in all sorts of weird patterns (including a large curl at the back of his head).

"Uh-huh," she said affectionately. She didn't like to think about this little boy getting involved in the horrible war going on outside her house—the war he'd come close to being a part of, just a few months ago.

Her heart froze to think about it.

"Weally!" Nate said fiercely.

"Eat breakfast, we'll talk later," Laura said. She glanced at the TV (which had been playing lowly in the background) as the Shrimps began to dig into their food. Nate had just realized the bowl was  
in front of him and had begun to tear in, followed by Rachel in a much meeker manner.

"_And now, more on the situation happening at what was Madison Square Gardens—a warning to our viewers, the scenes you are about to see are extremely graphic."_

Laura _did_ freeze, her eyes wide, as she took in the images on the screen. An aerial shot, from a helicopter, of Madison Square Gardens. The structure looked as if a knife had swept over it, cutting  
the top off. It was filled and surrounded by thousands of bodies in an enormous puddle of blood.

The camera moved slowly to take it all in.

"_It happened suddenly, at nine AM this morning. Surviving witnesses say that a female mutant, about twenty years of age, suddenly appeared on the stage in a diamond-shaped flash of light, stood behind  
the speaker and shouted a warning that she could 'not control it any longer'. A moment later, a concussive force washed over the entire stadium, causing the horrible destruction we are seeing now. Reports of survival are…" _

**…**

"Calm down, Laura," Nori said, touching her friend's hand, which was shaking slightly. "I'm sure he's okay. If you haven't noticed, it's _impossible_ to kill Julian…no matter how hard I've crossed my fingers."

Laura took a shuddering breath.

"Bad joke, bad joke," Nori said, wincing. "I meant that in the most comforting way possible, I swear."

"I know." Laura tilted her head back. "It's just one thing after another…god, I _knew_ things were too good to be true, that something had to go wrong…I mean, before all this trouble started, I _knew._"

Nori patted her hand sympathetically.

The ready room door opened, suddenly, and Emma peered in. "The team survived. Although one member was mortally wounded and is in the infirmary, Julian is fine. Perhaps a little battered. They are  
enroute and should be returning in approximately five minutes."

**…**

"Laura…broken ribs," Julian wheezed, curling away from her arm as she sought to squeeze the life out of him (or so he thought). He was covered in blood, soot and cuts from the structural collapse that  
had followed the shard of light; and a structural beam had hit his back on its way down, cracking a few ribs on impact and shattering his right elbow. It was now in a sling.

She didn't respond, except to squeeze tighter.

"I'm fine, really," he said, using his good arm to pat her back. The one that didn't cause a stab of pain when he moved it. "Laura—c'mon—"

"Hellion…debriefing," Scott said from the background, also looking worse-for-wear, but intact. He paused. "Laura can come if she wants."

"I don't think I could come otherwise," Julian said with difficulty, trying to pry the girl off his torso.

**…**

"Her name was Clarice Ferguson, the mutant known as Blink," Scott said, his voice grave. "She was a friend of the X-men. She's fought with us before…it's a long, complicated story…as most things here are.  
I'm really not sure if this is even the Blink I met personally. Whole thing with converging realities. But let it be said that she was a good girl, and that I'm sorry to see her dead."

The team stared back at their leader silently, sitting around the long metal table. a few of Julian's team—Josh and Cessily—were mixed in with more senior members, all of whom wore the same somber expression.

More loss.

"What happened…well, we _know_ what happened. Blink was a mutant with the ability to teleport herself, objects, and other people, by using shard-shaped portals. She would throw the portal at the target, and it  
would close around them, teleporting them anywhere she chose, even as far as the moon. Well, that's what happened here, all right." He paused. "Clarice was the latest victim of the Legacy virus. She teleported  
Madison Square Gardens to God-knows-where—well, anything above the height of four feet."

Julian closed his eyes. It had all been so sudden. "_**GET DOWN!**_" Scott had shouted from the front, suddenly; he'd been confident he could shield himself from whatever was coming, but Wolverine had been behind  
him. The older man had grabbed him by his head and yanked him down with him; the shard had suddenly blinked over the air space an inch above his scalp, sheering off some of his hair in the process, despite his  
being enclosed in a telekinetic shield.

He'd come so close to being cut in half, for real. He had realized this as he lay on the ground, his heart hammering in his chest, with a big splash of blood from the people standing next to him slapped across his face  
and the weight of the pillar on his arm, his shield having been dropped in shock. His unbelieving eyes had seen several half-torsos thud to the ground, unbalanced; a little three-year-old girl had backed away,  
frightened—still holding a now-severed arm with an attached hand—as her fathers' legs had buckled and tilted forwards to reveal organs.

"Christ," Logan had hissed, not missing a beat. "Get that fuckin' kid, Keller!"

Julian had been slow to respond at first, then he saw the girl's face crumple, and this helped to clear his mind. He knew what to do when he saw toddlers crying, at least. Dragging himself up, he started talking to  
the girl, who only seemed more frightened, but when he managed to pick her up (shaking the severed hand out of her tight little grip), she was babbling about Sesame Street to him.

In the X-wing, Josh had healed her for shock.

**…**

"Her mom's coming for her tomorrow," Julian said, looking at the small child, who was holding a stuffed animal (a bear) and asking Emma a question. Emma, who had just removed the tainted memories from the  
little girl's mind. "Scott figured she'd be best off with us."

Laura gazed at the toddler.

"That could have been you," she said. "Holding her hand, and then…not."

Julian didn't feel like telling her just how close he had come. "It wasn't. Let's go home. I'm tired. I want to rest, and sleep, and then wake up and kill the goddamn son of a bitch that did this."

Laura said nothing.


	16. 7: Not This Again 5:5 new objectives

**A/N: **Here's two chapters to make up for the lack of updating. I've been busy; I got engaged this summer, and was spending it with my fiance. Still have a bit to go till we can be in the same room;  
this Christmas is the last stretch. Man, it's a sucker punch in the stomach to say good-bye, and it fucks you up for days.

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "not this again" 4 Issue: 5/5 )**

**Chapter 149 : new objectives**

* * *

"A girl," Laura said, waving her spatula (as she was in the kitchen, cooking) for emphasis. "I want another girl, to balance things out, because _you_ managed to add another male to the  
household, without my consent." Of course, she was referring to James.

Julian rolled his eyes.

He was sitting at the table, leaning his head on his palm and watching Laura as she lumbered around the kitchen, grasping for items (and often failing)—but seemingly undisturbed by her  
clumsiness. Although she had cursed quite colorfully when she'd dropped a steak on the floor with a resounding _smack!_

He thought about their situation. He was still nervous. Somehow, he was even more nervous because he felt _responsible. _It was somehow different than the Shrimps. He knew he was  
responsible for them; he loved them and would do anything to protect them—but he didn't feel that he had really had a part in bringing them into the world, since it hadn't been their choice.

But this—this was _his_ responsibility, his choice that had gone wrong.

"You're awfully quiet," Laura said. "I was sure that'd make you speak up. Are you just going to lie down and take it like a jail bitch, Keller?"

"I've got a lot on my mind," Julian grumbled, looking down at the papers in front of him. They were reports from his company. He couldn't concentrate on them, of course, despite the fact that  
his lawyers phoned him every second day, sounding panicked and asking him to either 'take a crap or get off the throne' about being the president of the company, since he was being so uninvolved.

Laura poked at the steaks with the spatula. "Mmm." _She_ was worried, too. There had been too much bloodshed and loss, of late; they were always waiting for the next shoe to drop, and Julian  
seemed to be losing his voice. As long as she'd known him, he'd always been fairly laid back, making jokes, criticizing other people. Full of himself, too. Lately, however, she'd noted that for the  
most part, he didn't speak unless spoken to. He looked a little thinner and more tired. It was to be expected, of course; one could not lose so much in such a short period of time without showing some signs.

Nonetheless, she worried. She hoped that things would go smoothly with this newest complication, so as not to cause more grief. It was about time that something was _created_ instead of _destroyed. _

**…**

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Julian asked, peering into the room. He saw that the headmaster of Xavier's was sitting at his large oak desk, working on something with his laptop computer.

Scott looked up and snapped the laptop shut. "Oh, Julian. Yes, I did want to speak with you. Come in."

Julian ventured into the room, thinking of the times he'd been in here. He vaguely remembered the last time—his head had been clouded with amnesia. Beyond that were many memories of  
Getting In Trouble With Laura, the type of memory that deserved a title with proper capitalization.

They had been nerve-wrecking, exhilarating times that had pretty much changed his idea of 'fun'. And he thought _he'd_ been the school trouble maker, even bearing the name 'Hellion'.

He remembered very clearly being told that this wasn't a 'school for clowns'.

"Sit down." Scott was smiling at him now, confidently. Like he knew he could rely on him. Had the Shrimps changed them _that_ much?

He sat down.

"How do you find your current stress load?" Scott asked him.

"Uhh…" Julian blinked. "You mean, all the bloody deaths, murdered friends, and genocide threats aside, right? Not to mention what Laura's cooking up."

Scott remained silent.

"I might have developed PTSD," Julian said sarcastically. "Except it's not over, and I assumed the 'post' meant you had to be past the trauma, all done with the bad times and just coping with memories. Right?"

Scott smiled slowly. "I like how you think, Keller. Can you take more?"

"Sure, why not," Julian said. "Who's dying next?"

"No one, if I can help it." Scott looked his pupil in the eye, although it was hard to see behind his visor. "I want you to take over a class for me."

"Oh, Special Ed?" Julian had stopped teaching the class with his induction as leader of the New X-men, Scott having temporarily put a cease to all academic activities as the Legacy attacks worsened.

"No. I was going to give that class to another deserving individual." Scott grinned. "I want you to be the Hellions adviser. You'd coach them through their training simulations, be the go-to-guy for  
all their questions…be a shoulder for them to lean on when times get rough. You know the drill."

"I didn't really lean on Frost's shoulder," Julian said. "But I guess I know what you're talking about." He'd bore witness to Dani Moonstar's relationship with her students; and Northstar's.

Apparently an adviser could be more than just someone who dictated what would happen.

"Mind you—not only will you be leading your team, but you'll be responsible on passing on your values to the next generation of mutants. You're going to be someone for these kids  
to look up to." Scott paused. "You want the job?"

"Uhh…sure?" Julian shrugged. How hard could it be?

"Who'd I be advising?"

"I'm working on the roster," Scott said. "So far, I was thinking of your brother Jim…Sylvia Rockefeller-Black…and—"

"Not Sylvia," Julian said. "No way in hell. She's a snot-faced brat with major superiority issues and attitude to boot."

"Exactly why I'm placing her with you," Scott said evenly. "I think—of all the advisors I've picked for this term—you're the one who can deal with her best, Julian. Not to be mean…but if you  
think about it…you just described yourself, three years ago."

Julian flushed. He knew Scott was right.

"Fine. Expect her in your office all the time."

"That's what it's here for," Scott said, grinning again. "I'm torn about the last few members of your team. I thought we'd give Noseeum a go…Gaia…and Flare. You need a tanker, too. Any ideas?"

"Waitaminute—_who?_" Julian asked. He'd heard of the first two names Scott had mentioned before, but not the last one.

"Candace Burns," Scott said calmly.

"Sir—excuse me—but are you out of your fucking mind?" Julian asked.

"You're excused," Scott said, undisturbed.

Julian stared at him until he answered.

"Candace is…a challenge, yes. But I think she can be trained into the Xavier mindset. She's just a little lost."

"She cooked Laura alive," Julian pointed out.

"And you're going to train her not to do that."

Julian rubbed his forehead. "So let me get this straight. You're putting—on this little piece of disaster—the flaming psychopath who reacts at the drop of a hat—the little brat with the  
attitude problem who _lives_ to start fights—_and_ my brother, the emotional amplifier?"

"Yes," Scott said calmly.

"Are you _trying_ to blow up the school?" Julian asked, incredulously. "Do you really not see a problem with that particular combination?"

Scott grinned. "Well, it'll be your job to make sure that doesn't happen, won't it?"

"…" Julian swallowed. "I changed my mind. I won't do it."

"Too late, you already agreed," Scott said.

"I didn't know what I was agreeing to!"

"You could've asked." Scott sighed as Julian folded his arms and glared at him. "Oh, come on, Keller. I know you can handle it. You have great buffering powers, should things get  
violent—you _know_ how to deal with people who have slight—imbalances—" Scott paused, not wanting to name anyone in particular. "—and Logan's going to be your co-mentor."

"Oh." Julian relaxed slightly. "Really?"

"Well, more like your assistant. I want _you_ to get the experience in. He'll be around to help you set up stuff, discuss tactics with students, and help you if the shit hits the fan. But mind  
you—I wouldn't recommend running to him with every detail. Logan gets annoyed with petty problems."

"Yeah, I can see that," Julian said, drawing on memories.

**…**

"So I'm a teacher again," Julian announced, having opened the door to find Laura in the kitchen, holding a tub of ice cream and a spoon. Everyone else was in bed.

"What? _Really?_" Laura wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah. Guess what I'm teaching."

"Ohhh! I know! The really '_specia_l' class, right?" Laura grinned meanly, making quotation signs with the hand holding the spoon.

"Guess again."

"Huh, they gave you a _real_ posting?" Laura asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Julian took off his jacket and threw it at the coat hook, his forehead wrinkled. "Apparently, I'm the _advisor_ for the new Hellions squad."

"Sweet." Laura dug her spoon into the container. "How much does it pay?"

"Laura, we have over five billion dollars, in cash, in _one_ of our bank accounts."

"That's in our bank account. What does the job pay?"

Julian rolled his eyes. "That means I'm doing it for _free_, to help the school out, asshole. We don't need money, but _they_ need teachers."

Laura sucked her tongue. "I don't like you just giving it away, Keller."

"Whatever." Julian sat down on the couch. "That's not the interesting part, though." He watched her pull up a heaping curl of ice cream on the scoop and consider it. He knew what she was thinking.

"What's the interesting part, then?" Laura ate the spoonful of icecream.

"The roster." Julian paused. "Scott put Jim, Sylvia, and Candace-fucking-Burns on it."

"MMM-mmm!" Laura squealed, set the container down and made a face. Julian turned and watched her pound her fist on the counter with a painful expression; a few moments later she gasped began massaging her temples.

"Oh my _god,_" he said, rolling his eyes.

"THAT SUCKED!" Laura managed, a few minutes later. "That was the worst brain freeze ever! Do _not_ drop bombs on me while I am eating frozen food!"

"Not my fault you wolf things down."

Laura lidded the ice cream, shoved it in the freezer and slammed the door with a sulky expression.

"Scott's insane, letting that psycho stay at the school," Laura said in a flat voice. "But I can see why he chose you for the problem students. After the Shrimps, I don't think there's any fight you couldn't separate, right?"

Julian considered this. "I guess," he said. He hadn't thought of that before.

"Except me and Daken," Laura continued dreamily. "I wouldn't allow you to separate us till I'd lovingly dissected every fiber of tissue that composes the rotting sac of meat Logan believes to be a heart."

"…" Julian stared at her.

"Half joking," Laura offered.


	17. 8: The New Hellions 1:4 disasterpiece

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "the new Hellions" 4 Issue: 1/4 )**

**Chapter 150 : disasterpiece**

* * *

Julian swallowed, eyeing the six teenagers under his charge, all dressed in standard Xavier Academy practice uniforms. They eyed him back, with one, collective, gawking eye, or so he thought.

There was Gaia, and Noseeum, and Flare, and Sylvia. And his brother, James. At least he was used to bossing _him_ around. There was also another girl that Julian had never seen before, a quiet blond-haired girl with big blue eyes.

And Blindfold, of all people.

"This it, Keller?" Logan grunted, surveying the little squad as well. "These all yer kids?"

"I think so." Julian looked at the sheet of paper on the clipboard in his hands. They were standing in the Danger Room, and everyone was wearing uniforms, as they were supposed to run a small simulation today to test everyone's capabilities.

Julian wished he could hide. He had a very bad feeling about this.

"Aldene, Ruth?"

The girl tilted her head. "Excuse me, but it is going to die. How terrible."

"…" Julian looked at Logan, who shrugged.

"I'm leaving," James announced loudly.

"No!" Julian snapped. "Stay right there, Jim, or I swear to god I'll make good on what we spoke about earlier."

James rolled his eyes.

"Burns, Candace?"

The girl didn't answer.

"Cordova, Amelia?"

"Hi." The blond girl spoke up, smiling.

"Gaia?"

"Hello," Gaia responded in her usual pleasant manner.

"Awesome. Keller, James?"

"We just fucking spoke. Do you have Alzheimer's?"

"Shut up, butthead. Rockefeller-Black, Sylvia?"

"Present." Sylvia looked eager. She'd been gunning for this for a very long time now, having egged at Julian to tell the heads that she was ready for a squad since she'd been 14.

_Whoever I pick for leader, it _won't_ be her,_ Julian promised himself.

"Wilde, Gilbert."

"Here," Noseeum said. A patch of ground suddenly developed an arm and waved at him. He started and almost dropped the clipboard.

"Great, everyone showed up. Except for this Mullinix guy."

Julian looked at Logan. "Should we start it up?"

Logan shrugged again. "Why the hell not?" he countered.

…

"This was the worst idea ever, in the history of ever," Julian said, watching the chaos from the observation room. "I've never seen a group of people so uncoordinated in my life. I mean, really."

"You kids weren't so great when _you_ first started," Logan reminded him.

"I didn't trip on _myself,_ Logan," Julian said apprehensively. "No one caught _fire._ And above all, we didn't create a gaping crater in the middle of the Danger Room."

Logan gazed at the smoking gap in the metal floor.

"Yup, Cyke'll be right pissed," he said after a few moments. "To be fair, it was yer brother that really got 'em goin'. I thought he had a handle on that damn riot power of his."

"So did we," Julian said. "You'd think someone that nasty wouldn't have a problem with other people's nastiness, but…"

"God works in mysterious ways," Logan grunted.

"I wouldn't bring God into this," Julian said, still gazing at the destruction. "God wants nothing to do with these hapless people."

Logan grinned. "Think we better go separate 'em, Keller," he said, nodding at the glass. Julian squinted through the smoke.

"Oh my _god,_" he said, turning to head for the door. Then-_tinkle! _Something large and heavy flew through the observatory glass, smashing it into tiny shards and fragments. Logan blinked, then pulled a piece of glass out of his eye.

"…" Julian flew through the hole in the glass, using thought to separate the smoke. He finally located his brother and clobbered him in a football-style tackle, shouting above the noise.

"Turn it _off_!" he yelled.

"I _can't!_" James snapped. "They—_ARRGH!_" The boy crouched over, holding his head, and Julian flew backwards and slammed himself into a wall, overcome with a wave of mixed emotions. Chief amongst them was anger,  
followed by annoyance, violation and an urge to show people who was in charge.

He slithered down the wall and clutched his ribs, coughing up blood. Suddenly his 'assistant' was beside him, obviously livid. "KELLER, you dumbfuck!" Logan roared, in a manner that reminded Julian  
of Laura. "Don't need _you_ addin' your shit to the mix!"

Julian blinked up at Logan, with difficulty, because his head hurt.

Logan straightened, and sniffed the air, his expression changing.

"Holy—" he had about three seconds to roll to the side as Logan lunged for his torso with his claws. There was a loud _clang! _and a ripping noise as they instead met the metal wall of the Danger Room.

"Get over here, kid…" Logan growled. "Show _you_ who's runnin' this show!"

"JIM!" Julian shouted almost hysterically, raising up as strong a shield as he could manage as he scrambled to his feet, Logan in hot pursuit. The man moved _fast, _and there was no way he could block him  
forever. And Logan was _heavy, _about three hundred pounds with his metal skeleton. His only hope was that somehow he could outrange James's powers—or make him stop.

**…**

_Hiss!_ Julian glanced to the side, and saw that the door had opened, and that Laura was standing on the other side. She took in the disaster scene with wide eyes.

"…I'll come back later…" she said.

"RAWRRRRRRRRRRRRRL!" Logan stabbed at Julian, his claws penetrating the shield but not getting close enough to hit his person. He'd done this twice already, catching his arm lightly with the tip on one  
strike. It was bleeding, but Julian didn't have time to patch it up.

"HELP!" he yelled.

"Jesus. How…" Laura peered into the smoke, and saw flashes of purple and orange light. "Oh god—you've got to be—it's Emo, isn't it?"

"LAURA! HELP!" Logan had just struck again, a rivulet of blood flying from his shoulder.

"Alright, alright…" Laura ventured into the Danger Room.

Logan suddenly turned his head towards her…and snarled.

"!" Laura exclaimed as her father figure lunged for _her,_ saying something garbled about being 'the best at what (I) do'. She suffered a flesh wound to her arm, which healed almost instantly. She then popped her  
own claws with a _snkkt, _and warded off the next lash. The adamantium generated sparks as the claws struck together; Logan used his strength to push the mess of sharp tips towards Laura's face.

"Holy…" she said, straining to keep herself defended. "Keller…you have to get Emo down, _now!_"

"He can't shut it down," Julian panted.

"Fine, _I'll_ do it then," she grumbled. Her booted foot swung straight up and caught Logan in the crotch; the older man automatically let go. Quickly she disappeared into the smoke, trying to trace James' scent. It was  
next to impossible. She couldn't hear, either, due to the loud screams emanating from the air, where Sylvia and Candace were fighting, flashes of white and purple washing in waves over the entire area.

_There!_ She darted through the smoke, catching sight of James as he ran away from someone, still holding his head.

"Hey, _**fuckface**_!" she called.

James paused for a moment, and turned.

_**BOMF**__. _

The boy dropped to the floor like a stone, his eyes rolling up in his head.

Suddenly the screams stopped reverberating against the walls; silence reigned over the disaster scene.

"I hate you," Candace said loudly to Sylvia, then Laura heard her leave (still unable to see through the smoke).

"Laura?" Julian called.

"Over here," Laura said. Footsteps in her direction; then Logan and Julian emerged from the smoke, looking worse for wear. They joined her in looking at the boy lying prone on the floor.

"What did you—Laura—" Julian asked uncertainly.

"I punched him in the face," Laura said calmly. "I'm surprised no one thought to knock down the _source_ of this. I mean…really…Keller? Aren't you a big fancy _X-man_? And Logan…I'm a bit ashamed to be your clone right now."

Silence.

"You had t' be there," Logan said, annoyed.

"I'm sure," Laura said mildly.

**…**

"Summers. Trust me, you don't want those kids trainin' together," Logan growled. "Never seen anythin' go so wrong. I mean—I seen lots worse fights, sure…but when that's supposed to be a _team_…yer barkin' up the wrong tree."

"I see," Scott said, rubbing his chin. "And how was Keller?"

"Keller was helpless. Helpless as _I_ was, anyway. We all got nerfed by that damn brother of his. Kid's outta control."

"I see," Scott said again. "Looks to me, Logan, like James is the problem factor here. If we can help him control his power…I see no reason why the team wouldn't work. The spirit of competition will bring them together."

"Yeah, well…" Logan rubbed his face. "I goddamn hate these kids."

Scott remained silent.

"This is a punishment, ain't it?" Logan persisted.

"Hardly. I just thought you might like to help Julian out. I know you two get along well, and that you'd bring some stability and reassurance to a difficult situation. These are the _problem kids, _Logan. These are the kids I've  
marked as having the most challenges to overcome. If they can overcome them—if they become a team despite their differences—I think they'll be the next generation of X-men, of all the students in the school. And God  
knows, we need new blood right now."

Logan sighed, rubbed his neck. Scratched his ear. "Fine. But you get Keller's brother a gizmo or somethin', coz _that_ can't go down again."

"I'll get right on that," Scott said, smiling.


	18. 8: The New Hellions 2:4 name on the door

**A/N: **Sorry for wait on publishing chapters, I had a period filled with finals, moving, and flying to Iowa (where I am currently, with my fiance) + the holidays. Will still be a bit spacey with updates but I haven't forgotten :-)

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "the new Hellions" 4 Issue: 2/4 )**

**Chapter 151 : name on the door  


* * *

**

"Julian, are you busy?" Scott asked.

"Er—" Julian shook his head, no. He'd been coming out of the Debriefing Room, on his way to the men's lockers. They had just returned from a situation in Mutant Town, NY, where a young boy had been kidnapped for  
Legacy purposes. They'd found him, in the warehouse used by this sect of the Sapien League—tied up to a wooden chair, with a large welt on his neck.

The boy was six years old.

Josh had healed him, and they'd returned him to his distraught parents. Julian felt tired; he was elated that they had saved the victim—for once—but still furious that anyone could be so monstrous as to kidnap a child for  
genocide purposes in the first place. The anger made him weary, as he'd been angry so much lately.

"Good," Scott said. "I've got something to show you."

**…**

"Uh…" Julian blinked. "Why is my name on the door?"

Scott grinned. "Because it's your _office,_" he said.

"…" Julian studied the nameplate for a while. _6B: Julian Keller, Hellions Counselor, _it read. There was a plastic wall pocket for files, and a shiny doorknob. The door was made of a deep polished mahogany.

"Open it," Scott said.

Julian complied. The office inside was not large; it was about a quarter the size of the Headmaster's office, and much plainer. There were a few bookshelves, a small filing cabinet, an oak desk, and a leather ergonomic  
chair. And a window, behind the chair, with a plane shutter blind.

"It's not much. All I had, at the moment. But it should do just fine…at least now you have somewhere the students can come talk to you in private, should they need to."

"I was planning to use the washrooms," Julian said. "I had a stall all picked out and everything. Might be a bit creepy, though."

Scott grinned. "There's connections for your laptop. It's up to you to set office hours. You should have at least two days a week, with minimum three hours each. Make sure they know when you're free. Some might be too shy to ask."

"Sure."

Scott patted Julian on the shoulder, then headed for the door. "Oh, and Keller?"

"Yeah?" Julian said, still gazing at the desk.

"How would you like to teach a class?"

"Er—" Julian looked at the headmaster questioningly.

"I thought you could teach Mind over Matter this term. It wouldn't be a very big class…and it's only once a week. Most of the students are from your Hellions group, so you could be more involved in their development."

"And less involved in what you're going to ask me to do?" Julian asked directly.

Silence.

Julian had known, for a while now, that Scott Summers had something in mind for him. The leader of the X-men hadn't been sitting idle while watching the attacks on his students, on his people. He was working out  
militant plans, enlisting troops, marking maps.

And Julian had also noticed that several X-men disappeared for lengths of time, when he knew the actual team had not been sent out. When he asked questions, he was told they were 'doing something for Scott'.

Not only that…but he remembered the team he'd briefly been a part of: grey and black, when rescuing Laura. And what their purpose had been. And the way Scott had looked when he'd asked him to not breathe a  
word of this to anyone.

_You report to me now, _Scott had said, when he'd first become an X-man. _Do you understand? _

"Yes," Scott said.

"I want no part in it," Julian said quickly. "I have a family, and I have friends. I don't want to cut myself off, which is what will happen if I'm suddenly keeping secrets and…" he didn't add the word _killing. _It was implied.

"I haven't asked you yet."

"Ask me then," Julian said.

"Not now. You're not ready."

"When do you think I'll be ready for _that_?"

"You'll know," Scott said, his tone clearly stating that it was time to stop asking questions. "Will you teach the class?"

"Okay."

**…**

"How much are you paying for it?" Laura demanded, upon receipt of the news 'I've got my own office'.

"Nothing," Julian said, annoyed. "I think it's a given that teachers' offices are provided by the institution. Is _it_ like, eating your brain or something?"

"Just about." Laura was sitting on the couch. He peered over the edge, and saw that she was surrounded by empty bags of potato chips, various containers, wrappers, and a glass plate with a  
sticky brown residue.

"Christ. Looks like someone had the munchies."

"It's making its presence known" Laura said. "I think I'm eating for twenty this time. Possibly forty."

"Don't even." Julian hit her with a pillow, then headed towards the kitchen, and the fridge (which was slightly open). Items were hanging out haphazardly, including a limp, half-eaten carrot. He wrinkled  
his forehead and opened the door completely.

"Laura, where's the milk?"

Silence.

"And the fruit?"

More silence.

"The jam…"

"We're supposed to go shopping tomorrow. There wasn't much left of anything."

"Laura, I got that milk jug yesterday."

"I was thirsty."

"That was a gallon of milk!"

"And I said, 'I was thirsty'."

Julian closed the fridge door and headed for the counter, then pocketed the car keys resting on the surface. "You coming or lying there like a beached whale?"

Laura didn't move.

He rolled his eyes. "Anything you want?"

"…" Laura sat up, and began rattling off a list worthy of paper and pen. It ranged from fresh fish to salad materials to yogurt to moose tracks ice cream to grenadine and cookie dough. And it didn't stop  
there. When she seemed to finish, the list contained forty six items.

"This is like a hundred and fifty bucks, at least," Julian said, staring at the list.

"Aren't you the guy that said you've got over five billion dollars in _one_ bank account? This isn't the time to be stingy!" Laura hissed.

"Well, come with me. I don't feel like spending an hour in feminine hygiene picking out '_light pads, with wings, and a cottony pillow surface'_!"

"It's not all that hard. And I _know_ you use TK on that aisle. Don't lie. I've seen you snipe my tampons from a distance. You actually took a picture with your cell phone and circled the box so you know what shelf it's on."

"I so did not."

"It's your background."

"…" Julian tried not to grin, and failed. "Look, I hate that aisle. I don't see why I always have to shop it for you."

"You use it, you maintain it, Keller," Laura said. "It's just like a car. Except not."

"Whatever." Julian threw her jacket over her head. "Get up. If you don't come, I'll pick the opposite of everything on the list."

"You wouldn't."

"Let's see…I'd grab 2% milk, because I know you fucking hate anything heavier than skim." They had had a long and vicious argument about milk during their first grocery trip together, one neither had forgiven  
the other for in all their time as a couple. Laura's eyes narrowed.

"You wouldn't."

"Push me and I'll bring whipping cream. Oh, and see where it says pixie stix?"

"…." Laura pushed garbage off of herself and began to pull on her jacket. "This is practically abuse, you know," she said loudly.

"Yeah, yeah," Julian said. "Go get the Shrimps, already."

**…**

Julian waited by the cart (which held a sleeping Rachel; Nate was on his feet, sucking his thumb and examining boxes of drinks on the junk food aisle). He was watching Laura as she stared intently  
at a bag of chips on the shelf.

"C'mon. You've been doing that for five minutes. I know you want them."

"I refuse to pay four dollars for a bag of chips," Laura said sternly. She continued to stare at the product.

"Laura…_I'm_ paying. Just take them."

Laura poked the bag viciously and made a face. "I wouldn't feel right inside."

"For godssakes." Julian made a motion with his hand, and the bag of chips shot into his palm. He put it in the cart, ignoring Laura's noises of protest, and began to wheel it away, Nate in tow.

Huffing, Laura finally followed her family members into the drinks section.

"Coke," Julian said, just as Laura said "Pepsi," in an evenly firm tone. He leaned on the handle bars and glared at her. "Look, we have this argument every freakin' time. Let's just get something  
different for once, and agree on it."

"Fine," Laura said, wrinkling her nose.

"Sprite," Julian said, just as she said "Cream soda."

"Damnit, Laura!" he said.

"I can't help what I like, Keller!" Laura said. "Maybe we should just get beer. That's a universal love right there."

"Laura…pregnant."

"_Effin babies!" _she said, her tone full of frustration. Nate looked up at her with wide eyes. "Mum?" he asked.

"Never mind her," Julian said, patting Nate's head comfortingly. "She's just throwing a little tantrum of her own. Gee, wonder who you got it from."

**…**

"Just a report," Julian said, waving Laura away. She was nosing around, asking him questions as he tried to have a conversation with his lawyer on his cell phone. He realized this was possibly the worst thing  
he could have said, as he saw Laura's eyes widen-in the same way that Nate's did when he prepared to release a barrage of questions.

_**Hellion! **_Emma's mental voice suddenly barked in his mind. _**There is a situation. Prepare at once, we are leaving in five minutes. **_

Julian closed his eyes and swore under his breath.

"What?" Laura asked, leaning with her elbows on the table top.

"Here." Julian handed his cell phone over to her. "Something's up. You can finish this." He paused. "You going to be okay? I think Jim's in his—"

"Keller, I'm fine, as always. I'm one part adamantium, one part healing factor, and two parts hormones right now."

"True," Julian agreed, getting up. "That does kind of count as arsenal."

Laura watched him leave and thought, silently, that it was _him_ they had to be worried about.


	19. 8: The New Hellions 3:4 relief

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "the new Hellions" 4 Issue: 3/4 )**

**Chapter 152 : Relief**

**

* * *

**

"So, today you find out your codenames. And all the organizational crap." Julian said, holding the clipboard and thinking that it was a bit of a crutch. He could see why Cyclops was always  
holding it, while addressing the students. He could squeeze it when he was angry, he could pretend to read it when he was embarrassed—or when he didn't want to look a group of  
people back in the eye.

Behind him, Logan folded his arms. Surprisingly he had not complained about Julian's requesting he be present for all future Hellions activities, whether they involved powers or not. The  
introductory session had convinced the older man that these children were possibly more volatile than the Shrimps.

As of now, Clare and Sylvia were standing at the opposite ends of the lineup, their arms folded and their faces cold. The air was practically full of static.

Julian suspected this had something to do with his brother, who had refused to dress up in the tight Xavier academy uniform, and had instead opted for the largest, droopiest sweater  
he could find. The sleeves were a full three inches too long for him, but he had insisted on wearing it, the hood yanked up over his head for protection, his pant legs dragging on the  
floor around his sneakers.

"Seriously, dude, I think you're overdoing it," Julian had mumbled to him, on the way to the school. "It's not like anything's going to happen."

"Uh huh," James said in a muffled voice, rolling his eyes distrustfully in shadow of his hood.

Now Julian and Logan were facing the students, feeling nervous themselves. The amount of hatred generating between the two girls would be enough for James to cause a  
school-wide riot, should his control slip.

And Julian knew he wasn't feeling all that confident.

"Aight. So…we're going alphabetically here. Ruth? You're still going as Blindfold."

Ruth made no indication of having heard him. In fact, she turned her head away, as if she was looking at the bookshelf. He was used to this reaction; however, it didn't make him  
feel any less creeped out.

"Actually, a whole bunch of people get to keep their names. Flare, No-see-um, Gaia…no changes. I guess they're pretty descriptive already." _Although _she _should be named EasyBake,  
_he thought of Candace, running his finger down the page.

"Oh, here. Amelia?"

The girl nodded.

"You're Amo…amee…a—"

"Amoeba," Logan said, looking amused. "Thought you passed Biology, Keller."

Julian bit back his annoyance. "Amoeba. Thanks, _Logan._"

The girl looked uncertain. "That's a _weird_ name," she said.

"It's descriptive," Logan grunted. "That's what yer powers are, ain't they? You bust apart into a shapeless critter and eat stuff by surrounding it."

"I guess," Amelia said.

Julian looked at his brother next, and felt a desire to laugh. It would be mean, but Cyclops seemed to have quite the sense of humor.

"Yeah, what?" James asked.

"Your name's Riot," he said.

Silence.

"You're joking?" James asked.

"No, man, that's what he named you. I had nothing to do with it." Julian couldn't keep himself from grinning.

"Fuck _this_," James said angrily.

"KELLER!" Logan barked as the boy walked away, making Julian jump as well. "Git your ass back in her or so help me god, I will teach you a lesson you won't forget anytime soon!"

"Later," James called, waving him off. The door snapped shut behind him.

Silence.

"Er, Sylvia?" Julian said. "You'll be Psyche. And…if this Mullinix guy bothered to show up, he'd be called Adamant…but I don't think he even exists, at this point."

**…**

"Jim…c'mon. It's just a dumb name."

Silence.

"I had bad luck with names, too. I took the name 'Hellion'…right before Frost went and named the whole _unit_ that. I think that's a little more embarrassing, really…"

Silence.

"Jim, can you open the door?"

Silence.

"Please?"

"_Enough,_" Laura said, marching into the hallway with the magazine she'd been reading. "I'm sick to death of hearing you beg. _**EMO! YOU HAVE TO THE COUNT OF THREE TO  
OPEN THE DOOR!**__" _She pounded on the door, forcing the wood to bend in with each contact.

"Laura—" Julian put his hand on her shoulder. "Let's give him a little privacy."

"You sitting by his door, whining, is _not_ privacy," Laura said. "You're letting your younger brother _control _you."

"I am not," Julian said, annoyed. He flushed slightly.

"You so are. You guys are being ridiculous and I'm going to fix it for once and for all." She paused. "Besides…I have a score to settle with him. _**EMO, THREE IS UP!**__" _

Laura held up a fist, popped her claws, and watched the door expectantly.

A few moments later it opened, and James glared out with one eye. "Go away! I don't wanna—_HURRK!" _

Laura seized him by his collar and pulled him out so they were face to face. "You little crap, you sleep in my house, watch my TV, and then you finish the last effing _ding-dong!" _

Her grip tightened with the last word. "I've been thinking. This squad will get you out of my hair, for a good deal of time. I got all excited at the prospect…and then your brother here tells me you _quit." _

"…" James glared at her. "You have no idea wh—"

"Shut the hell up, Emo. You're _going_ back on that squad, understand?"

"I—"

"Do you understand?"

"They named me—"

"I don't give a shit what they named you. _**DO YOU UNDERSTAND?**__" _

Laura roared the last part, and Julian found himself edging away.

"…fine!" James said, trying to sound defiant, but failing. Laura let him go, gave Julian a triumphant look—as if daring him to comment on her methods—then shuffled back towards the living  
room sofa, rubbing her lower back with one hand and holding the magazine up for inspection with the other.

The boys exchanged looks.

"She pregnant or something?" James asked.

Julian froze. "We were going to wait to—"

"It's pretty obvious," James said dismissively. "You guys _suck_ at keeping secrets." He slipped back into his room and shut the door in Julian's face; a definite, final sound.

Julian paused to absorb the irony of this statement, then turned away.

**…**

"My, has it been two months already?" Dr. McCoy asked, eyeing the two younger members of the X-team and adjusting his glasses.

"You make it sound like time passed _quickly,_" Laura said scathingly.

Momentary silence.

"My apologies," Dr. McCoy said dryly, holding the door open. "Come in, come in..."

**…**

"I can't believe I'm doing this again," Julian said, peering at the Ultrasound screen.

"_YOU_ can't believe it—what about _me?_" Laura grunted, tensing as Dr. McCoy ran the cold wand over her stomach. "I'm the one who's doing all the work here!"

"It's work your body is doing….not you personally," Julian pointed out. "It's not like I gave you a box of parts to assemble."

"I'd prefer that," Laura said. "Then I'd have a choice to _not_ do it!"

"Children, please," Dr. McCoy sighed, wondering why _he_ had to hear the bickering for a second time, too. He paused, his eye catching a spot on the screen ahead. Julian looked up to the same area.

"Is that it there?"

He was referring to a curl on the bottom, about the size of a peanut.

"I believe so," Dr. McCoy said, his eyes running over the expanse of Laura's womb. Searching for more—something the boy beside him was also doing.

"Just one!" Julian exclaimed, waving his hands around in excitement. "FUCK YEAH!"

His hand knocked Dr. McCoy's glasses off one ear, and the doctor gave him an annoyed look. "Please control yourself, Mr. Keller," he said.

"Sorry," Julian said, not really noticing.

Laura was still dealing with her joy. After a moment she squealed.

"Party in my womb and everyone's invited!"


	20. 8: TNH 4:4 planning for the future

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "the new Hellions" 4 Issue: 4/4 )**

**Chapter 153 : planning for the future  
**

* * *

"You have failed me," He said. "All of you have failed me, to this date. But that's okay, because I'm a forgiving sort of guy, and I adapt to situations. I've got a new plan for you, just for _you,_ my dear, delicious lady."

The Leper Queen gazed at him dryly, her mask off. Usually this meant she was going to kill whoever was looking her in the eye, but this time she would not. Not yet, at least. She was hideously disfigured, her flesh melted  
into her teeth, her nose missing, her eyes dead and cold. All of this had been caused by her daughter, her mutant daughter who had set her on fire upon discovering her powers. Lucia Paige.

She had once been beautiful, good-humored, loving. She'd been a nurse, and had married her high school sweetheart; they'd been ecstatic with the arrival of Lucia Paige, their daughter. But a darkness ran deep through  
the heart of their happy little home, something that had stayed in the back of her mind. A mutant had passed her when she was pregnant, spread its filth into the air. She had breathed it in and felt her daughter kick fitfully in her womb.

Later, Lucia had destroyed everything, in fire. All the Leper Queen had seen was a wall of pure white fire pass over her life, giving birth to the new her.

_Monster. _

"Don't patronize me," the Leper Queen said. She would have curled her lip if she had one to curl.

"I'm most decidedly not," He said with a smile. "You've been charbroiled. You're like medium-rare steak to me. This body literally salivates when its eyes look at you, in response to the appetite you call up. So yes, you look delicious."

"Sick," the Leper Queen replied. "My orders?"

He held up an envelope. "You're going to _like_ this one. Real direct, to-the-point…aw shucks, why bother with wasting trees? You're going to capture the primary target…and inject my new host with your wonderful legacy derivative."

The Leper Queen's eyes widened ever so slightly (difficult to do, because they were sans eyelids).

"What? Won't the body be damaged?"

"Not at all. Or it _will_ be, just that it won't matter. I'll fix it up soon enough…and there's some other variables in my plan that I haven't made everyone privy to."

The Leper Queen paused. "Why not?"

He smiled. "Because it's none of your business. We have our bargain. I get the body, you get your species pure and unmarred by the 'mutant menace'."

"There's still the body you will be inhabiting," the Leper Queen said. "I'll have to exterminate it too."

"All in due time," He said, smiling wider.

**…**

"Laura, it's the size of a peanut, and you don't even know what sex it is yet," Julian grumbled. "It's not going to be born for another four months, at least. I really doubt it's going to care that we don't have everything yet."

"I can't believe you'd take that attitude," Laura said accusingly. "I want to get these things while I'm still mobile, and before I'm as big as a—"

"Last time, you were out fighting _Magneto _till you were, like, five months along. You should be just fine."

"That's not the point," Laura said dismissively. "Hold this—I'm going in."

Julian reluctantly accepted the bag shoved into his hand, rolled his eyes, then followed the determined girl into the store full of infant accessories, telling himself to suck it up since he _was_ kind of at fault. This time.

About half an hour (and two hundred dollars) later, the pair emerged holding shopping bags stuffed to the hilt with various items, Laura talking animatedly.

"I can't believe they didn't have this kind of crap when Nate and Rach were newborns," Laura said, gushing as she peered into a bag. "So much has happened in baby tech in a year!"

"I don't think that qualifies as tech," Julian said.

"Say that again when you're juggling a shit-filled diaper while trying to keep the baby occupied," Laura said, wrinkling her nose.

"Must've been hard for you, not being telekinetic," Julian replied smoothly. "I've never touched a single one of those disgusting bacteria farms."

"First of all—I think you're excluding a certain little incident," Laura said.

"Ugh. I was just done getting over the trauma. You suck," Julian mumbled. They headed into the food court, Laura in the lead, her eyes set on a certain dessert store. He rolled his eyes as she reached it, and began reading the menu.

"Banana supreme. Orange marmalade. Strawberry Confections. Banana fudge. And _second,_ they aren't 'bacteria farms', Keller. They're cleaner than _you._"

"Pfft."

"Caramel Supreme it is," Laura said suddenly. "A large. And a Banana Pecan Delight. Large."

"But I want—" Julian started.

"They're both for me," Laura interrupted.

**…**

At home, Julian tried to walk softly and not jostle the girl-slash-woman in his arms. She'd fallen asleep on the couch watching TV with him, and her neck had been crooked at an uncomfortable angle.

He laid her down on the bed and brushed her hair out of her sleeping face, thinking that he was grateful he could still pick her up, despite the metal lining her skeleton. His expression tightened, thinking about the monsters  
who'd done this to her, and thought back to how he'd punished Kimura.

_**SHRRRIP**_, _Kimura's skin falling to the floor, with a soft noise, like a pile of laundry._

Julian froze on the thought, and he scowled. He wondered if he'd hurt her enough.

"Mmm," Laura said, suddenly waking. She turned her head and looked at him, then frowned. "Whassup? You look—"

"Never mind," he said, with a final voice. "Go to sleep."

Laura didn't need much coaxing.

**...**

"Guys, the point of today's exercise will be learning to work as a team, one step at a time," Julian said to the row of teens standing in front of him—all wearing training uniforms—even his brother, who was standing with arms  
folded, as far from the others as he could manage.

All seven of them. That left the seemingly fictional Mullinix, who had never bothered to show up for a single practice session.

"Alone," Ruth mumbled. "Very alone. Trapped in a box, yes."

Julian ignored her. "Each of you guys are going to stand on the disc with your name on it. There will be a challenge in it, when we fire up the Danger Room." He thought back to the time Frost had run the Hellions through  
this simulation, and gave an involuntary shudder. His ears had really hurt. "Except for one person, who won't get a disk. They will be the key to releasing the next person, and so forth. This is really about strategy, realizing  
what each of your teammates is good for."

"This is a dumb idea," James said loudly. "And I'm confused as hell."

"You suck at explaining things!" Sylvia added.

"Just turn it on," Logan advised. "They'll get it."

"I think we have to take Mullinix out of the program," Julian said. "Otherwise they're gonna be screwed."

Logan made an _mmmm _noise, just as the Danger Room doors hissed open to reveal Ms. Frost—and a tall, thin, ungainly-looking boy.

Ms. Frost did not look pleased.

"I believe you were looking for this," she said icily. Her fingers were clenched like talons on the boy's shoulder. "Julian, Logan, students…I would like for you to meet Jacob Mullinix."

Mullinix looked down.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Logan grinned. Emma shot a glare at him, then shoved the boy into the room and turned. "Have fun," she said.

"Uh, hi," Julian said, as the boy shoved his hands in his pockets, looking glum and out-of-place.

Logan grunted. "You're supposed to be tank?" The boy didn't look it, but then there were enough strange mutations out there to make him learn not to judge a book by its cover.

"Dunno," Mullinix said. He had a southern accent.

"Show us what you got, kid," Logan grunted, as Julian glanced at his clipboard doubtfully.

"It don't work that way," the boy drawled. "Somethin' got t' come at me fer that—"

"I've decided I really don't care," Logan interrupted. "Just shove 'em in the damn simulation. I got beer an' a good book waitin'."

Julian sighed, and proceeded to start the simulation that he and his team had run themselves a few years ago.

It seemed like forever.

**…**

"How'd it go?" Laura asked, while cutting a piece of chicken into tiny chunks for Nate with a claw.

"Fine," Julian said. "It was weird, being on the other side of the glass, you know?"

"Yeah," she said. Nate made a complaining noise and pushed her hand out of the way, eager to get to his food. Laura leaned down and whispered something to the boy; his small face split into a smile and he released a giggle.

Julian watched, and felt the same strange sensation, of being on the other side of the glass, watching.

Laura seemed so happy and content, with the family she'd made, fought to hold together and literally suffered through hell to stay with.

It couldn't last.

…

"I think that can be arranged," Daken murmured. "Quite easily. I will contact you when the opportunity presents itself, you can be sure."

His phone snapped shut and was slipped into the drawer by the time the footsteps reached the point of audibility he had measured down the hall. The feet creating them belonged to a female—he stiffened as the scent reached  
his nostrils. His father's clone, Laura Keller. The bitch.

The footsteps passed, accompanied by another pair. She had walked past his door with the Japanese girl—Ashida—the one who had miraculously escaped being splattered all over the Rockefeller center. He thought it might have  
been a greater destiny for herself than anything else she had planned.

Yet they were not his primary targets, not the reason he was here. Finally he would be working with it directly.

He closed his eyes and relaxed.


	21. 9: Life and Death 1:4 party at a funeral

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Life and Death" Issue: 1/4 )**

**Chapter 154 : party at a funeral  
**

* * *

"Seriously…you want me to take them to the _mall?_" Julian asked.

Across from him sat Emma Frost, the sunlight streaming through her blinds causing her diamond-skin to glitter softly. She had a hard expression as she clasped her fingers, the nails  
biting into the wood of her desk.

"It will be an excellent bonding exercise," Emma said. "As well as a stress-relieving activity. These children have heard enough bad news this term to last them a lifetime." She was, of course,  
referring to the constant war-atmosphere that cloaked the mansion, to each day's casualty report that almost seemed like a news reel.

Just that morning, a teacher—Karma—had been a victim. The school had reeled from the loss. Another teacher had been injured seriously and was in the infirmary, unconscious.

"I guess," Julian said. "Laura's coming with me—I don't want to leave her alone right now."

"Of course not," Emma said, her eyes sympathetic. "I understand. And—Julian—the funeral will be today. At three. You can take them tomorrow, at twelve o' clock."

Down the hallway in the library, Daken flicked a page in the magazine his eyes were trained on—but it was hardly the object of his concentration. A few minutes before Ms. Frost had walked Julian to  
her office, he had passed by the headmistress and whispered in her ear: "If I were you, I wouldn't walk around in such a vulnerable, _fleshy _state." A whiff of pheromones had shot through the air like  
a dart, and Emma had nodded imperceptibly, her skin slowly starting to glitter. More importantly, she was withdrawing herself from the psychic network.

"What a good idea. Thank you, Daken," she'd said, her voice distant.

He listened as Emma gave Julian instructions for the next day.

**...**

"The mall?" Laura asked, wrinkling her nose as she examined a black dress on a hanger in a critical manner. They were preparing for the funeral; Julian had his suit laid out on the bed, and Laura was dressed in a slip, choosing an outfit.

"Yeah. Frost figured it'd take their mind off things." He picked up his shirt. "I want you to come. I don't…don't want you alone now, especially after…"

"Sure. Need more soap anyway," Laura said. She turned to him, holding the dress up against her slightly bulging figure; at four months along, she was beginning to show telltale signs.

"Think this'll fit anymore?"

"Give it here," Julian said. She passed the dress over; he touched it, and it stretched slightly across the waist.

"Oh, awesome. You're kind of like a swiss army knife, y'know?"

"Yep," Julian said, pulling his shirt on. "You sure the Shrimps will behave? Wouldn't want to cause a—"

"They don't understand what's going on, but they do know it's serious time," Laura said confidently. "And I don't want to be separate from them. Period."

"Wasn't suggesting that," Julian said.

**...**

"Xi'an Coy Manh—or "Shan" as she was known to her friends—was a kind and loving soul. What she has given to us will live on; her legacy is her children, and her siblings…" Kurt Wagner's voice echoed through the small  
cemetery, his face drawn and tight, as was his voice. In his three-fingered hands sat a bible, held open to a passage he had picked to read for his friend.

Julian and Laura now sat closer to the front than they had before, being faculty; although Karma's squad was first in the arrangement (having known her better than most of the others). Beside them sat his teammates, and  
other faculty members (Logan had sat beside Laura, and halfway through the service took Nate on his lap).

After the service, some of the attendees gathered in the mansion's parlor for a luncheon, and the air was somber—not only for the loss of a mentor, but for the fear that each individual harbored.

Who would be next?

Some of Julian's teammates were quite affected by Karma's passing, as their old mentor, Dani Moonstar, could be seen in the corner brooding. Nori, Josh and Sofia had gone to her, trying to offer what comfort they could.

"I feel so bad for them," Cessily murmured to Julian.

"This is stupid," Julian said angrily. "I've lost so many people already. Brian. Nori. Laura. What do these people _want?_ What—oops," he'd gestured with his hand and spilled his glass of wine on Laura's front.

"Watch it—I hear you can't get alcohol on babies!" she said, brushing her slightly-bulging stomach off. "It's like getting Gremlins wet. And what do you mean, you _lost_ me? I'm standing right here, you even spilled something on me."

"Okay, I _almost_ lost you. Close enough. My point is, what do they _want _from us?"

"To stop living," Cessily said quietly. "They won't stop till we're dead. All of us."

Silence.

"Well, guess I won't bother changing outfits then…that's going to be a lot of funerals," Laura grumbled, kicking the carpet with her toe. Rachel tugged at her pantyhose, murmuring something to her mother.

"But we just went…oh, alright, here," Laura knelt and picked the little girl up. Julian and Cessily watched as she carried her daughter towards the restroom in a brisk, no-nonsense manner.

"You're lucky you got her back, Julian," Cessily said softly. "You came so close to losing her…"

"I know," Julian said. "I'll never let anything hurt them again." He held his glass tightly, and Cessily looked at him, getting the sense that he had taken care of whatever had been responsible for hurting Laura the first time.

Over his shoulder, her eyes settled on Sofia, whose gaze was on Julian. The girl suddenly saw Cessily's questioning face and looked away quickly.

"That's good," she said vaguely, in response to Julian. "You know, you should probably go make sure your squad is okay. The kids haven't seen a lot of death before…I'm sure this is hard on them."

"They'll be fine…they have to grow up sometime," Julian said.

"Julian!" Emma Frost was approaching them, still in diamond form. They turned.

"I want you to go speak with your students, and ensure they are coping with this tragedy correctly. No ifs, ands or buts, do it."

"…" Julian rolled his eyes and went to look for the kids, while Cessily half-smiled.

**…**

Julian went in search of his students, and happened upon his brother first.

James was standing with a glass of wine in the corner, talking to Mindee Cuckoo.

He decided to start there; approaching, he cleared his throat.

"Why are you drinking?" he demanded.

"Look at the pot calling the kettle black," James grunted, not bothering to look at him, but trading smiles with Mindee.

"You're underage," Julian argued.

"Oh—come, Julian, it's a difficult time for him," Mindee said suddenly. Julian hadn't heard her speak without her sisters in almost perfect unison, and found it quite unusual. He raised his eyebrow.

"Where are the other Cuckoos?" he asked.

"Elsewhere," Mindee said mysteriously. She placed her hand on James's shoulder. "I should be returning to them. Remember what I said—keep your chin up, and—"

"Mmindee!" Came the other Cuckoo's voices, as they suddenly appeared from between two funeral goers. They appeared to be distressed. "Hhow could you separate from us at a time like this?"

Mindee turned to them. "It doesn't matter. Let's go see Ms. Frost now."

Julian watched the Cuckoos link arms and disappear into the crowd, then turned to his brother again.

"So….you and Mindee Cuckoo, huh?" he asked.

"No! Well, maybe." James looked embarrassed. "I kind of like her…but…I don't think I'm ready to be close to anyone, with my powers…no telling what could go wrong."

Julian sighed. "I'm going to give you a piece of advice—don't wait. If you think she's right, don't wait to tell her. Follow your heart and not what you think is going to go wrong. With things the way they are now…you might not have _time_."

"I guess," James said. He frowned. "I don't want to be special anymore. Can't I…can't I just go back to what I was?"

"Nope," Julian said. "And you know you wouldn't anyways."

"No," James admitted.

Julian patted his shoulder, then brightened. "Hey—I have an idea. I need some help with your teammates...Frost said I have to cheer them up. Maybe you can amplify what I'm feeling?"

"You'd have to be happy yourself for that to work," James said pointedly. "Besides, I'm nowhere in control enough to try something like that in public."

Julian paused, then grinned, having another idea.

**…**

"Mr. Keller…s" Emma Frost said, her voice as icy as her glare.

Julian sat beside James; in his lap was Nate, sucking his thumb innocently.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" Scott asked from the corner.

"It…seemed like a good idea at the time?" Julian tried.

"You sure got yourself a catch there," Logan mumbled to Laura, who was holding Rachel and looking quite annoyed herself. And frazzled. "A true genius."

"Good lord, what on earth would make you think that having your untrained, _volatilely _powerful brother project the unrestrained happiness that your son feels when given candy?" Emma asked, her eyes popping.

Julian looked down. "Okay, so maybe it wasn't the best idea ever…but I meant well. I was just trying to cheer everyone up!"

"I think you did that," Scott said dryly. He was referring to the effect of Julian's 'great idea'.

This idea had consisted of giving Nate—the little boy that experienced a crazy sugar high when given candy—a Pixy Stix straw, and having James amplify the emotion of pure joy to Julian's students.

It hadn't stopped there. Dr. McCoy had murmured that the effects were similar to a strange hybrid of LSD and Ecstasy; the entire after-funeral lunch had suddenly become a crazed, euphoric party  
that had destroyed the mansion's parlor.

"Wish candy made _me_ feel like that," Laura grumbled.

"…" Emma sighed, rubbed her head, then pointed at the door. "Go. I am entirely too tired to deal with this now. Take your students for an outing tomorrow…and please, think before pulling little exercises like this."


	22. 9: Life and Death 2:4 take a bullet

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Life and Death" Issue: 2/4)**

**Chapter 155 : take a bullet  
**

* * *

"Guys, this is Laura. You can think of her as me. If you have a problem, you can go to her, and she'll try to help you out."

The group was standing in the garage, by an Xavier SUV, Logan leaning on the hood and Laura standing beside Julian, her arms folded.

"I think you just brought me along so you don't have to go in the women's stores," she said flatly.

"Also true," Julian grinned. "Everyone present and accounted for?"

"I don't feel like _shopping,_" Sylvia said loudly. "One of us is _dead! _We buried her yesterday! We should be out avenging her!"

"That's not how the X-men work, Sylvia," Julian said.

"You said it yourself! We're not X-men!" James said, not wanting to go shopping either.

"Come on," Sylvia said, turning to her teammates. "Who's with me? Who wants to go teach these creeps a lesson?"

"I smell a Quire," Laura said.

"Guys—" Julian said, alarmed; Laura raised her hand.

"Keller. Watch and learn. _**BLACK!**__" _ She barked the last part so loud that everyone in the garage jumped as the sound was amplified (including Logan).

"It's _Rockefeller-_Bla—" Sylvia began.

"I don't give two craps what your name is. You're going to shut your trap and get in this van, on the count of three. Or I won't be responsible for my own actions."

"Are you _threatening_me?" Sylvia challenged.

"Fuck yes," Laura said, glaring at the girl.

"Laura—" Julian.

"Shut up, Keller."

"You want to tell your hormone-crazed, ugly little bitch of a wife that she's a hundred percent out of line, and that if she lays _one_ finger on me, I'll call my parents, whose lawyer is—"

_**POW! **_

Sylvia's head snapped back, a stream of blood flying in an arc from her nose. She fell on her behind, too stunned to cry.

"In my defense, that wasn't a finger," Laura pointed out, looking embarrassed.

"…" Sylvia covered her broken nose with her fingers, and looked up at Laura with disbelief. "_**YOU HIB ME!**_"

"I kind of forgot about the Adamantium," Laura said sheepishly. "Really, I didn't hit her that hard. Barely glanced her face."

"_**SHE BOKE BY NOSE!"**_

"I'll get Elixir," Logan sighed.

**…**

After some argument, healing, and a small apology on Laura's part to the injured, the group proceeded to Westchester Center, were the outing was planned. Logan drove, and only two small problems occurred (caused by power slips on James's part).

Ten minutes later they found a parking spot and disembarked towards the food court. They stopped in front of Taco Bell and Julian announced they were going to split into three groups: anyone wanting to go to 'girly' stores would go with Laura; anyone wanting to see 'guy' stores would go with himself; and anyone who just wanted to walk around aimlessly could accompany Logan.

James immediately headed towards the older man's group, his pant legs dragging on the floor and his hood flopping over his eyes, leaving the only visible feature to be his frown.

Candace, Ruth, Amelia and Gaia followed Laura; Sylvia followed Logan, after a moment. Julian was left with Jacob Mullinix, and Gilbert.

"Meet back here at three o' clock," Julian called to those walking away.

**...**

"Here's the rule—ten minutes per store," Laura said, sucking on her tongue stud and holding up her wrist with a watch on it.

"Wha—no way! Shan't finish in—" Candace began, but fell silent at a glare from the girl in charge.

"Look, I haven't forgotten what _you_ did to me, missy, so you better keep your distance. I'm safing for two right now and if anything goes wrong on this trip, I'm blaming _you!_"

The first store they entered was _the Gap_. Laura entered the store front and stayed there, not liking the contents and figuring that she should supervise her charges. This policy changed, though, when they reached _Cherry Bomb, _  
and she found her charges whining at her to leave (twenty minutes after entering). Only Gaia seemed to appreciate this store.

Laura allowed the students to pick some of the stores after this; when they reached the soap store, she gave Amelia (the most sensible) some money and asked her to pick up a certain kind of soap, as she could not bear to stand  
even near the entrance herself. She walked across the pathway and browsed in another store to escape the smell.

**…**

"Look, kids, here's twenty bucks. Knock yerselves out. I'm goin' to th' bar beside th' Michaels there. Call me at this number if ya need a hand with somethin' non-shoppin' related." Logan was thrusting a post-it note with a phone  
number scribbled on it at James.

The boy raised his eyebrow. "Take us with you."

"Yer minors," Logan grunted, turning away.

"Take us with you or I'll call Jules and tell him your bailing," James threatened.

Logan paused. The threat did not bother him, but the thought of being nattered by Frost in his mind, later, did. That woman just didn't quit.

"You got cards on yah?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do," James said. Sylvia, behind him, nodded, looking much more pleased.

Logan raised _his_ eyebrow. "Huh, bet Frost wouldn't be happy about that," he said.

James scowled. "Yeah…well I bet she'd be more unhappy about you skipping out on us like this."

"Fine. Follow. But put a lid on it, kid. Don't wanna hear ya two blabbin' the whole time. I'm goin' t' watch the game, and that's what I'm _gonna_ be doin', understand?"

"But—" Sylvia started. James raised his hand. "Yeah, we got it. Be quiet."

"Good."

The kids followed Logan down the escalator and out of the mall, across the parking lot, and into a seedy bar. They had their ID cards at ready, but found they weren't asked for them, even when they sat at the bar with Logan.

"Guinness," Logan grunted to the bartender.

"Miller," James said. Logan glared at him. "Lite," he added. The bartender smirked.

"ID, kid?"

"Sure." James pushed the card across the table.

"Sex on the beach," Sylvia said. "On the rocks."

"She'll have a water," Logan grunted.

"Bu—" Sylvia.

"No buts, water or nothin' fer you, missy."

Sylvia went into a sulking fit; Logan and James ignored her, their eyes finding the television in the corner.

**…**

"Fuckin…" Julian grumbled, checking the time on his phone. The boys had been browsing around the anime store for what seemed like an hour, but was actually fifteen minutes. It was the third store they had visited.

Julian hated anime.

It seemed that both Gilbert and Jacob Mullinix were absolutely obsessed with the art form, and they were animatedly discussing shows as they examined the merchandise. Julian knew that he was accomplishing what he'd set  
out to do—distract the students from the hard times and help with team bonding—but god if it wasn't _killing _him in the process.

At thirty minutes with the boys not looking to leave, Julian stepped outside of the store and closed his eyes. How could people find such a thing so fascinating was beyond him, especially when the store smelled like stale nachos.

He'd have to take Laura in there and get her opinion, he thought, grinning. She'd probably pronounce the smell to be that of 'nerd'.

Julian opened his eyes—and started. There were two men approaching him, with a look that wasn't right.

"You—" he raised a shield, just as one of the men tried to clap a rag over his mouth. The man was pushed back; he hit the railing and almost fell over the balcony onto the ground level of the mall.

"Get out! Now!" he shouted in to the store, to Gilbert and Jacob; with his mind he flung the other man over the railing, in time to meet his original attacker. He dealt with him similarly, then picked up his cell phone and hit speed dial.

"Laura—"

"Already here," she interrupted from beside him. "I heard the kerfuffle. What—"

The boys had exited the shop; Julian whispered to her what had happened. They tore off down the mall, towards where Laura had left her female charges.

"Where's Logan? I can't hear him anywhere…or smell him," Laura said.

They were now on the ground level, by a large tree in the center of the mall. Julian would never forget what happened next, the woman that slid around the trunk so neatly, effortlessly. With a white mask.

Laura's eyes widened and she pushed Julian out of the way, just as the trigger was fired on the gun—the dart gun.

The dart hit her neck instead.


	23. 9: Life and Death 3:4 legacy

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Life and Death" Issue: 3/4)**

**Chapter 156 : legacy**

* * *

Julian was frozen. He knew what was in that gun—what horrors the darts contained. The only question—the only question was would Laura's skeleton explode along with her flesh while he was carrying her, or would adamantium give in under the strain? And did he have time to kill the woman responsible?

"Mutant filth," the masked woman said in a hoarse voice.

Always time to kill. He wasn't frozen anymore. Julian glared at her, and she stumbled backwards as the tree trunk simultaneously parted in two sections—then closed around her, amidst the sound of cracking and popping.

He picked Laura up, not listening to the cries of the students. "Find Logan," he said, and he was gone, through the roof of the mall, wondering if he could fly any faster than he had the time she'd run off to Mexico. Because this was much, much more urgent.

"Keller…" Laura looked up at him with pleading eyes, her quiet words audible in the bubble he'd formed around them. There was sweat on her forehead, beading down. "I think….I don't feel so good. What…am I having the baby now? But…."

_Oh, god. _

If it didn't have a healing factor…

"Eeeehn…" Laura closed her eyes, her breathing becoming quite labored. They were halfway to the mansion already, but Julian was certain she was getting _heavier, _and it occurred to him that if what the Legacy virus did was cause powers to go crazy, then perhaps Laura was healing herself to death.

This idea was supported by the fact that her hair was beginning to fall out as new hairs pushed through. He watched her face for a moment in fascination as the dead outer skin began to flake off in large patches.

"Too loud," Laura murmured deliriously, her senses becoming painfully sharp.

They reached the mansion, and Julian kept flying, crashing through the doors as he searched for Elixir. He flew left then straight up, onto the boy's floor; there was no need to examine his room, as Josh was already running out of it.

"What—"

"They got her!" Julian was as white as a sheet as he shoved the limp girl towards his friend, his hands shaking and causing her head to wobble. "_LEGACY! HEAL!__"_

"Holy jeez!" Josh said, grabbing Laura's bare upper arms with his hands.

Julian wasn't even aware of the crowd gathering around them as the golden light began to focus around the pair, the light that only emanated when Elixir was _really_ struggling to repair damage.

"Hold on…Laura…" Josh groaned, falling to his knees and taking the girl with him. Only their outlines were visible in the bright light enveloping them.

"Ehn…help me…I'm d-dying…it's…we…" Laura whimpered, surrounded by a mat of hair that had fallen out.

"Julian—" Josh panted. "I can't—I'm getting the virus—but her powers won't shut off, I'm only amplifying it—it's like full-body cancer—you need to go get Leech—you know, the—he looks like a midget alien—"

"Out of th' way," a female voice murmured. _Rogue. _She was removing her glove, a grim look on her face. "Ah've touched Logan in th' past—an' his healin' turns off for a bit after. Should buy y'all some time."

Her pale fingers reached out and touched Laura's damp forehead. There was an even brighter glow, like a camera flash; then Laura's eyes slid closed, and the growth of her hair ceased at her shoulders.

"Oh mah gawd—that poor gal," Rogue said, getting to her feet.

Josh sat back, panting. "The virus is gone…but we need Leech. Laura needs to be completely in the clear before she can get her healing back. Annnd…I'd say someone else should do it."

"Mmmm, Keller looks a bit worried there. Kind of like he might shit a chicken," Rogue said, in distinctly not her voice. "HAHAHA! That's totally what he looked like when he heard the word 'twins'."

"…" Nori, who had come to see the scene, looked at Rogue strangely and recognizing Laura. The older woman smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Ah've got a pretty good handle on mah personalities…but when there's extreme feelings or trauma like this, they can come out an' play a bit."

"Ah." Nori didn't look less disturbed.

"Y'all help me get her an' Josh to the infirmary. Emma…yeah, Emma, call Logan an' tell him to bring the kids home, please…we've got trouble."

"She…it was for _me,_" Julian said, his voice shaking, along with his hands. "She…she took it instead of me…oh god…"

"C'mere, sugar," Rogue said, reaching out and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm gonna take ya upstairs an' get Emma to put you out of yer misery for a lil while. Ya look like ya need some restin'."

"No, I—" Julian said, but her fingers brushed his cheek, and he sagged forward, his mind clearing for the time being.

**…**

"It's really interesting being in mah shoes just now," Rogue said, watching the three unconscious students with Logan. "For instance, ah see both sides of their relationship. Includin' their intimate moments. An' their fights." She paused, and looked at Logan. "He really loves her. Ah know ya always had yer doubts."

"Good," Logan said gruffly. He was kicking himself for dropping his guard, for letting the kids go out alone. He should've been there.

"Ah also know he took care o' the bitch that did this," Rogue added. "In fact…ah think he took care o' th' woman behind _all_ o' this."

"Ya don't say," Logan said.

"Logan…honey…ah know you blame yourself," Rogue said. "Don't. The only one we can blame is prejudice, terrible prejudice that'd make a soul act out somethin' like this." Rogue paused. "On another note…ah think we'll wanna keep our eye on Julian here. He's…well, he's done some stuff. Ah can't see exactly what, but this woman today ain't the first time he's killed." She held up her hand, seeing Logan's look. "Ah don't mean just Kimura. He's done it before…but, Logan, ah think you'd have done the same." Rogue knew this, having touched Wolverine before and absorbed his memories.

"Hrm." Logan grunted.

They stood sentry for a while in silence.


	24. 9: Life and Death 4:4 losing

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Life and Death" Issue: 4/4 )**

**Chapter 157 : losing  
**

* * *

"—god," Laura gasped, opening her eyes. She sat up, saw that she was alone in the infirmary room, and that she was covered in tubes.

She felt strange. Light and fluttery.

"…" Laura's limp brushed across her skin, brushing away the attachments; she lifted her legs over the edge of the bed and slowly stood, the pain in her backbone intensifying. How could she feel so light with such a large stomach?

_Large?_ How long had she been sleeping? It had been a tiny belly when…when it all had happened…whatever that had been.

She shuffled to the bathroom, conscious of only one thought: she needed to urinate. Badly. She'd knocked the catheter out upon waking.

A few moments passed as she did her business, then she stood slowly, wincing at the pain in her backbone.

Then it spread, and she felt lightheaded. Laura's eyes cast downwards.

That wasn't good.

"LAURA?" Julian suddenly burst into the bathroom, knocking the door aside like it was a piece of tissue. His eyes caught hers, followed them down to what she'd been looking at.

Her chin was trembling.

"Keller…"

A trickle was flowing down her ankle, from her knee, where the trickle widened into a river—and then, further up, a sea.

The lower part of her paper gown was soaked, saturated, with pure red.

Blood.

"I…no," Laura said pleadingly, her chin trembling as she leaned on the corner of the counter for support. She felt weak.

He felt even weaker.

**…**

"Please…please…save it…save it…" Laura moaned, tossing her head as Dr. McCoy took her pulse.

"I cannot promise you this," he said grimly. "The baby may not have your healing factor. It may have not been able to handle growing so soon. Your body might have damaged it during…your illness."

"SAVE IT!" Laura whimpered. She was sweating again.

Julian was leaning against the wall, his heart beating too fast, in his throat. He'd known—he'd feared this would happen—and it was all happening because of _him,_ because she'd saved him.

He wished so much that she hadn't.

He'd thought over and over about that moment, played it like a video in his head. Why hadn't he been shielding them? Why had he bothered to care about concealing his powers from the other mall goers? Why hadn't he just grabbed Laura and flown out the instant he'd been attacked by the men?

"…ah! AH!" Laura tossed her head, convulsing.

"No, is she—" Julian's eyebrows drew together, recognizing the motion.

"I'm afraid so," Dr. McCoy said, having just peered at the area under the sheet.

"Her cervix is dilating. She's losing the baby. This is what is called an inevitable miscarriage, Julian. I'm sorry."

"_**SAVE IT**_!" Julian yelled, the cords in his neck straining.

"I can't," Dr. McCoy said. "All I can do is assist in the birth…and pray that the baby was not damaged by the virus. Nothing else can be done."

Julian looked at Josh, who was also present.

"I'll do what I can, man," Josh promised.

Julian's hand found Laura's empty one.

**…**

Laura let her head snap down against the table, finished growling; she was too exhausted to fight as Dr. McCoy began to remove the protective sack from around the infant shape.

Julian held his breath, and her hand, very tightly. The sac wasn't moving the way the Shrimps had squirmed. He wasn't even paying attention to how gross the placentas looked.

The sac fell to the floor, revealing a tiny, pink face. Dr. McCoy motioned for Josh.

"Brush the head free…I don't want to hurt it with my claws."

"I'll do it," Julian said, pushing his friend aside. Gingerly he reached out and wiped a streak of slime away from the small nose. And stopped. There was something wrong…he could almost see through its skin.

And it hadn't opened its eyes.

"…"

"Josh, please," Dr. McCoy said gently, as Julian's hand fell away.

…

Laura opened her eyes as Josh laid the still form in her arms. The room was silent, very silent. Logan took one look at the girl and turned away, towards the door, as Laura's lips parted.

No words escaped; there were none. Laura had figured out that in this life, this small, fragile life, there was none. It was gone.

She didn't cry, didn't make a sound, just closed her eyes again, and her expression was that of complete exhaustion.

**…**

"No," Sofia gasped, peering through the infirmary window. She had come along with Cessily to visit Laura; they had just received horrible news from Josh.

"…..this can't be happening," Cessily moaned, touching the glass. "Poor Laura….oh, god…..she's had so much happen already."

"It was a girl," Josh said quietly. "I think…I'm not sure but I think it kind of broke both of them. I have my doubts on whether Julian's going to be doing anything with us again, you know what I mean?"

"He needs to grieve, of course," Sofia admonished.

"No." Josh paused. "I mean—I think this was the _last_ straw. I don't think he's going to 'grieve'—I think that's it for him. Never seen him like that."

"Oh, god," Cessily gasped. "You don't think—"

"No," Sofia said, gazing through the window of the door. "Julian would not. He would not let our enemies kill him." Her face was filled with a kind of understanding, as if everything was coming together.

"He would kill them first."

Cessily opened her mouth. "You mean he's going to go after whoever's doing this by himself?"

Sofia didn't answer, but looked at the boy inside the room, at his stiff posture, quiet composure, and determined eyes; and her own expression was serious.


	25. 10: Searching 1:1 dead ends

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Searching" Issue: 1/1)**

**Chapter 158 : dead ends**

* * *

"I'm ready," Julian said quietly.

He was standing in the middle of Scott's office, at night, uninvited, and the headmaster was opposite him, his arms folded.

"You are," Scott Summers repeated.

"I've been thinking," Julian said, his eyes glowing slightly. "I've been thinking, that the piece of shit I killed wasn't the big gun. She might have been leading the battle…but she wasn't in charge of the war."

"No," Scott agreed.

"Tell me. Tell me who to kill," Julian hissed. "I'm through playing nice."

Scott nodded slowly.

"You still have the outfit?" he asked. "Because I don't want the X-men associated with what you're going to do."

Julian stared at the headmaster, the colors of his suit changing, morphing, the symbols disappearing till it was no longer recognizable.

Scott nodded. "That'll do. And Laura…"

"Will never know," Julian said. He'd never, ever, tell Laura a single thing again. He'd failed her—beyond failure—beyond hope that she could ever forgive him—by letting her take that dart for him.

No, he'd never, ever, tell her a single word again.

**…**

Laura lay, on her side, on the bed, staring at the wall. She'd been released from the infirmary and made to leave; she'd crawled into bed here a week ago, and not gotten up, in a catatonic state. They'd had to assist her with even her bodily functions, so uncaring was she.

And even the Shrimps had failed to rouse her.

Julian stared at her without speaking, then placed the tray on the bed beside her, and sat down on the edge. He dipped the spoon in the cereal and brought it to her lips; she parted them, after a moment.

This went on.

**…**

_**Please see Mr. Summers in the ready room in five minutes, **_came a voice in his head. The Cuckoos. _**Be dressed. **_

Julian sat up in bed. He'd been watching Laura in the dark, her figure still except for the shallow rise and fall of her ribcage. He'd better wake James, he thought, and make sure she wasn't left alone right now.

If he was doing _this…_there was no telling what _she_ might do, if unsupervised.

He reached out in the darkness, calling his clothing, and felt the soft _wumpf!_ as they answered. Silently, he unzipped the front, and slid a leg out of the bed.

"Jim," he grumbled a minute later, rapping on his brother's door, then opening it. His brother stirred, looking grumpy; James had always been a light sleeper.

"Wha?" James asked groggily, one eye slitted open.

"Get up. You're watching Laura. I'm needed."

James scowled. "It's three-o-fuckin—_**PUT ME DOWN!**_"

Julian had lifted him out of the bed and slammed him into the wall. "Just _**do **_it!" he snarled, his hand a glowing fist. "I don't have time to argue!"

"Jeez," James said, pale. Something about his brother's face wasn't quite right. He didn't look angry…this predicament wasn't unusual—James was used to being lifted up and thrown around—but Julian's expression was _empty._

That wasn't the worst of it. James had recently become used to reading moods—emotions—just by standing _near_ people. Living with his brother had installed in him familiar tones, usual feelings—his style of anger, of happiness, et cetera.

But he'd never sensed _this_ mood before. It was a kind of devouring, hungering black cloud; the sense that something was going to die to feed a thirst.

He slid down the wall as Julian turned away, no longer holding him up.

"Jules—" James said, moved beyond his usual uncaring attitude.

"Let it go," Julian said, not turning around. He was gone, and James heard a loud _**crack! **_outside.

He rubbed his eyes, groaning, and therefore didn't see the figure of the girl creep by the door, her stringy, matted hair concealing her face.

**…**

Wolverine turned at the sound of footsteps approaching, and was staring at the door when the boy entered. He scowled under his mask, curling his upper lip slightly in a sneer. The kid shouldn't be involved in stuff like this. Summers was wrong to bring him in—to wait until the boy was _vulnerable, _then bring him in.

Like a soldier.

"Who's the target?" Julian asked, his voice thick with exhaustion. Despite the late hour, however, Logan doubted that the boy had been sleeping.

"Target's none-of-yer-damn-business, kid," Logan tried menacingly. "Run along home to my clone now, and leave the janitorial work to th' _grown-ups._"

He expected the boy to puff up in anger, to start telling him to mind _his_ business, but none of that happened. Instead Julian seemed to deflate, his still-unmasked face paler, if possible, and his eyes duller.

"I would, if there was a clone of you to go home to," the boy answered quietly.

Logan folded his arms. "You ain't in this fer revenge?"

"Sure," Julian said, and there was a little of the expression he'd expected to see. "But mostly, I want to make sure that the world is safe for the kids I have left. I want to make sure the world I give them isn't full of vermin like—"

"The world's always full o' vermin," Logan interrupted. "Always has been, always will be. Just th' way it is, kid."

"You done trying to talk my soldier out of the army, Logan?" Scott asked, appearing in the doorway. He was not holding his ever-present clipboard now; nor was he dressed in a grey and black uniform.

Julian realized that whatever he was having _them_ take care of, _he_ wasn't getting his hands dirty. He'd give them instructions, then pretend he had nothing to do with it.

_Works for me, _he thought without further contemplation. He wanted to be a tool, to be used in the fight for good without having to _think_ anymore, because he was tired of thinking, tired of trying to sort _right _from _wrong._ After ions of pondering, he'd come down to the fact that life wasn't black and white—just a million ugly shades of gray.

He folded his arms, then stiffened as a hand gripped his shoulder. Small, feminine, but extremely firm—because the bones were coated with indestructible metal. The metal he'd failed to prevent.

One of his many great failures.

"Where?" Laura asked him, her voice thick with disuse. More of a hissing sound.

"No." Julian didn't turn around, then he did, because she was forcing him to. She possessed deceptive quantities of strength.

"_**WHERE?" **_Laura persisted.

"Go home," Logan snapped at her, his expression disgruntled. "Might not be able to convince _you,_ Keller, but I sure as hell have a say in what you do, Laura."

Laura glared at her mentor through her unmaintained bangs. She looked like a wild thing. "Coming with you."

"Absolutely not!" Logan said. "Laura, march out of here and—"

"Blood feud," Laura said, her expression sour, her eyes now on Logan. "Honor."

Logan paused. "What?"

"Things you understand," she rasped. "This…this _thing _you're going after_…_this piece of human shit…it killed my child. My _child, _Logan. If it was Daken…"

"Logan…it's her choice," Cyclops's voice cut from the doorway. He'd known this would happen—nay, he'd _counted_ on it.

"No it isn't!" Logan said. "Laura's out of her mind right now. I understand it's been a rough time, kid, but this ain't you. Go home."

"Make me," Laura whispered, spreading her fingers as her claws glided out with a silvery-sounding _snikt! _Even the sound of her claws ejecting had been altered by the adamantium implants.

Logan stared at her for a moment.

"You'll be exactly what they wanted you to be," he said.

"I don't care." Laura.

"Fine. But you…you don't come to me when yer nothin' but a weapon, and yer all used up. I won't help you out of it this time, Laura. I did it when you were a kid…coz you didn't have a choice. But now—"

"This is my choice," Laura said in a closed voice.

"I wash my hands of yah, then," Logan said, then turned away, disgust evident in his face.

Julian looked at the floor.

**…**

Suited in grey and black, the four members of whatever menagerie this was crouched by a brick wall, waiting for Logan's signal to move in.

The older man was silent for a while. Then to no one in particular: "The Hellfire Club's located nearby."

Julian's ears pricked to attention. The Hellfire Club? He'd forgotten all about the elite membership that his mother had once held with the establishment in all the chaos that was his life lately. The only correspondence he'd received from them was a dream (oddly enough) soon after his mother's alleged death, regarding the inheritance of his title. He had been told—by a woman with shining black hair—that the title must be claimed within a year, or it would become null and void. He'd approached Emma about the dream, who informed him that it had indeed been a genuine Hellfire Club notification.

At the time, he'd had no interest in such an inheritance. Now…

"They've got at least a dozen psi," their companion said. She was a pale-faced woman with a black patch over one eye that had been introduced as Domino. "No one really powerful though. Odds are fifty-fifty."

"Better hope yer luck holds—" Logan started.

Laura's slanted eyes tilted over to Julian. "I have a better plan." She'd been thinking exactly what he'd been thinking.

**…**

Julian burst through the doors with more bravado than he actually possessed, concentrating on the matter at hand. He actually had business with them—that wasn't a lie—he had a title to claim; if he focused on that thought alone, perhaps the psychics wouldn't smell his other purposes right off the bat.

He'd had some practice at concealing private information; classes with Jean Grey-Summers and Emma Frost, as well as practical experience at concealing information, aided by the Cuckoos.

He was in the main room; an elegantly furnished banquet area with thick red carpets, stylish wood chairs and tables, as well as sculpted and painted walls and ceilings. The room was half-full of glamorously dressed people, many holding glasses in their hands as they spoke.

On platforms and in various cages around the room danced scantily clad women.

For a moment he stood, surveying the room, catching his breath, and trying not to chicken out. He'd changed his clothes—he was wearing some sort of suit he remembered vaguely from his closet—but compared to these people, he was certainly under dressed.

His mother, however, would have fit in just fine here.

"And how may we help you this fine evening, sir?" a woman—little more than a girl—asked from his side. He turned; she was dressed in a crisp white shirt, black waistcoat, and slacks. Some sort of hostess, no doubt.

"I'm here to claim my title," Julian said, almost unable to believe it was _his_ voice that had spoken the words out loud. Behind him, Laura gazed at the girl with stony eyes, her face devoid of make-up, although he had cleaned it for her and rearranged her hair along with her clothes.

The girl eyed them skeptically, as did the guests within earshot.

"Do you have a reservation, or an invitation?" she asked.

"No…" Julian said.

"You'll have to come back, then," the girl said. "No one gets in without some form of correspondence."

Julian thought for a second, then decided to go about things how he usually did…how he usually got his way.

"I want to see the manager," he snapped.

**…**

The man turned as the door opened, his hands clasped behind his back as he stood by the fireplace in a typical pose. His eyebrows arched in question at the girl peering in; then he saw (behind her) the boy.

"Ah," he said in a deep voice. "Mr. Keller. Do come in."

The girl stepped aside, gesturing for Julian to pass her; which he did, hesitantly.

Laura slipped in but remained at the door.

"And you are?" Julian asked after a moment, a little angrier than he'd intended to be. He was tired of people always knowing more than him about his own life.

"My name is Sebastian," the man said affably, reaching up to the mantle and picking up a half-full wine glass. "I am a friend of Madelyne's."

Julian noticed he didn't say _was. _

"What an exceptional woman," the man continued, reminiscing. "Such power…such grace and beauty. And _brains,_ yes. Are you her son then?" In a tone that suggested Julian couldn't be related to the aforementioned Madelyne.

"Yeah," Julian said, with distaste. "I am."

Sebastian appraised him coolly. "Do you share her formidable gifts, boy?"

"I—" he began, but Laura spoke up, her voice husky. "He has enough," she said.

The man's eyes shifted to the girl standing behind the boy. "I'm surprised you let your staff speak their minds like that, Mr. Keller. Your mother would be most disappointed to see you allowing such behavior."

Julian might have found this funny before, but felt nothing of the sort now. "That's my wife," he said, his tone flat. "Laura."

"Oh," said Sebastian, but he was given the impression that the man was not actually surprised. He had probably known already, but had been trying to make some sort of point. "How quaint." He gestured to a girl beside him, who was holding a tray with a champagne bottle and several glasses on it. "Dom Perignon?" he offered.

"I'm here to claim my title," Julian said.

Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "My dear boy…are you certain you're ready?"

"Would I approach you if I wasn't?" Julian countered.

Sebastian smiled. "You're here to see if I'm running this little gong show," he said. "Causing all this death, and destruction. The answer is no, I am not. I have better things to do with my time, Mr. Keller. Feel free to return for your title when that is the true purpose of your visit."

Julian and Laura traded glances.

"Oh yes, I know all about Scotty's lead," Sebastian said. "And my advice as to that…" he paused and smiled. "Don't go so far from home, little X-men."

The pair were shown out, trying to understand what he'd said.


	26. 11: Disneyland 1:2 still alive

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Disneyland" Issue: 1/2 )**

**Chapter 159 : Still Alive  
**

* * *

Standing in the kitchen, Julian leaning against the sink, Laura against the wall, her cheek pressed to the wallpaper, eyebrows drawn together.

"I'm tired," she said.

"I know." Julian didn't look her in the eyes; he'd been having trouble, lately. "I don't think you should be on this team. You've had a lot taken out of you."

Laura frowned. "Keller…I have to. Or they're going to take _more _out of me."

Silence. "I'm sorry," he said, after a few minutes had passed. He'd told himself no, there was to be no more talking. For a while he had brushed her off, and then…he couldn't keep doing it. It wasn't just Laura's broken expression that got to him, but the Shrimps had gotten upset.

So he'd started talking to her again, a few words at a time. Over the course of a month they'd come to this finite point in time and space, where conversation came, and went, and they could—every so often—pretend nothing had gone wrong.

"Don't _even,_" Laura said, glaring at him. There was a bit more color to her face; rising spirits. Even though it was anger, she was returning to life again, slowly; the Shrimps had gotten to her too, eventually warming her; a few days after she'd begun accompanying Julian on his summons, she had picked up Nate and scolded him, quietly, for trying to stick a fork into a socket.

Last week, Julian had even seen a hint of her previously strong sense of humor return. The Shrimps had run into the bedroom early one morning and woken them by jumping up and down on the bed and screaming bloody murder. While the two parents had tried to slow their racing hearts (having thought the apocalypse had started on their bed), the Shrimps had proudly shown them a collaborative art effort. The twins didn't really understand why their mother was so upset in the last month, but had understood someone bad had taken away something she loved dearly, and in their own way, they wanted to help.

They had drawn a somewhat decipherable stick figure man, with red spots (_buud, _Nate explained proudly, meaning blood) and two blue circles vaguely near his head area (_back ice_, Rachel had informed them, which Laura finally figured out to be 'black eyes'), and many little sticks attached to him.

"A porcupine?" Julian had asked, confused.

"_**NO!**_" the twins had shouted together. "KNIES!" Nate had shouted enthusiastically, making a stabbing motion with his hand. Then he'd explained it was the Bad Guy; he pointed to a label underneath the figure, in what looked vaguely like it might be an attempt to write.

"They're not watching channel 5 anymore, Keller," Laura had said, but he'd detected amusement in her tone, and glancing up, had seen a dimple. Then they had been shown the portraits the Shrimps had created; the family standing by their house. For Julian's picture they had drawn a very small green circle; for Laura's, they drew an enormous black blur, with lines he presumed to be claws sticking out from her hands, and a tongue with an angry face on it (_she hassa mean tongue!_ Nate said, mortifying Julian with his excellent memory); then the two twins, smaller stick figures wearing what appeared to be vague copies of X-men uniforms. _Very _vague; Julian recognized the colors, mostly.

"This is awesome!" Laura had said. She'd hung it up on the refrigerator; later when the Shrimps had gone to bed, she'd begun to chortle at how small they'd drawn Julian in comparison to her. Nowhere near the reaction it would have gotten from her sans-accident, but a start.

"Look. We need to plan this party," Laura said now. "Two's a big day for them, and it's not fair that our troubles are ruining their lives. After what's happened this year…we have to knock their freakin' socks off. You've got five billion dollars…_use _it."

Julian looked alarmed. "You're not spending that much on one party…right?" he asked.

"Not quite. Probably about three or four grand will do it." Laura said. "I'm talking Disneyland, Keller."

"We don't have time for that," Julian said. "We're looking for—"

"We sure as hell have time for our children, which are still living!" Laura snapped.

Julian looked down, feeling the guilt choke him—the guilt that she had taken a shot meant for _him. _And the price had been so heavy. He felt almost angry at her for bringing it up, for acknowledging the elephant in the room.

She paused, biting her lip for a moment. "Maybe a break will give us a fresh perspective." she murmured.

They'd spent hours brainstorming over Sebastian Shaw's comment, trying to decipher what the man had meant, to no avail. There was no one in the mansion they knew of remotely capable of the horrendous acts that had occurred; particularly because they were all mutants. Even Daken made his mutant superiority views well-known.

Julian ran a hand through this hair. "We ask Cyclops. I'll leave it up to him. If he thinks he can spare us…but not long, Laura. Two days, tops."

"Five," she said. "Not a day left."

"Five including travel time," Julian countered.

"Six, with travel time. _And _you promise me that you'll leave this all behind…for a while. We pretend it never happened."

"Okay." He hesitated, then moved towards her, and put his hand on her cheek. "I love you. I don't care if you don't want to hear it…but I'm sorry. Maybe we can try again, in a while." A big step, one that he almost couldn't believe he'd taken.

"Maybe." Laura leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "We need to get back to touching for that to happen."

"Kind of." They'd been avoiding contact, even though Laura was physically a hundred percent. They hadn't been able to touch each other without feeling the loss they shared in common. Even though Julian had had initial reservations over the pregnancy, he'd found the unnatural death of the expected to be a shock, to be something he grieved, and something he'd sworn to himself that those responsible would die for. He knew he could never quite overcome how badly he had failed to protect Laura, on so many occasions.

"Maybe we should pull the pixie stix stunt with Nate and Jim again," Julian said.

Laura smiled slightly. "I like my house intact," she said. "I was thinking…maybe if we change the scenery…"

"I guess we're going to Disneyland," Julian said, with a bit more enthusiasm.

**…**

"We thought we'd take the kids to—" Laura began.

"Approved," Cyclops said, without even looking up from his paperwork.

"—Disneyland for their birthday," she finished.

Julian and Laura traded glances.

"Why aren't you _gone_ already?" the leader asked.

"Because it's not a great time," Julian said. "You need us right now."

"I need you _after,_when you're fresh, and focused, and in it for the right reasons," Cyclops said. "That's in addition to the very real possibility of Emma killing me if I say no."

"But—" Julian said, more weakly.

"Thank you," Laura said.

"Are you taking Jim with you?" Scott asked.

The pair paused, looked at each other, Laura squinting slightly.

"Yes," Julian said. "Oh, _come on, _Laura…he'll love it. We'll get him his own room."

"Good. Have fun!" Scott waved them off.

"But—"

"_Thank _you," Laura said again, very firmly. She took him by the arm and half-dragged him from the room. "What is the _matter_ with you? He said _yes_."

"Fine," Julian agreed. "I'm just…worried."

"The X-men have been doing this for longer than we have," she reminded him.

He remained silent, and followed her home.

**…**

"Really? _Disneyland?_" Angel asked, her nose wrinkled.

"Consider it a bonus for all the babysitting you did for us earlier," Laura said. "You can bring them all. But I know Nate would go completely berserk if Tito was there."

"I don't think Tito will ever shut up about it if I say no," Angel said. She was referring to the racket going on at their knee level; Tito was hugging hers, yelling "_Please-mum-please-mum-can-I-go-can-I-can-I-can-I-can-I__—", _while Nate was tugging on Laura's and yelling "MUM_**WANTWANTWANTWANT—**_" while Rachel emitted a tiny 'want!' in the background to match.

"What about—" Angel paused. "Me 'n bird brain aren't pretty muties, like you folk. How will—"

"I'm pretty sure I can afford to keep us safe," Julian said. "If they have objections, I'll rent Disneyland for the day." He grinned.

"Keller—" Laura gave him an alarmed look. The toddler screams tripled in volume.

"Crap," Julian said. "Me and my big fat mouth. Nate—it's less fun if we do that. Then you don't get to see all the _other _kids at Disneyland."

Nate paused. "Like who?"

Julian thought fast. It had to be familiar, and knock his socks off. "Peter Pan, for one," he said.

"Oh my _god, _Keller," Laura said, covering her ears at the resulting screams (even Angel was doing the same, wincing). "How did you make it _worse?" _

"Must be a power of mine," Julian said grimly.

**…  
**

"Having a private jet is so handy," Laura sighed, leaning back in her recliner with a beer, her feet dangling over the foot rest. "Scratch that…having a rich man is even handier. Should've got one ages ago."

"I _did _try to draw your attention to it when we met," Julian said.

The pair were seated in the private jet, with the Shrimps plastered to the TV, and James a couple rows back, reading comics with his headphones blasting heavy metal. At first Laura had been irritated, but the noise allowed for a barrier between them and the boy, and so some privacy. Angel and her family were in the bedroom at the back, 'feeding the brood', as she called it.

"_When?_" Laura demanded. "All _you_ did was rub in what a bad attitude you had. Which does _not_ work without money, power or incredible good looks."

"I took you places," he protested. "Drinking…and…drinking…" he paused, feeling stupid for not having more examples. "Besides, I've got all three."

"Money doesn't count for all three, Keller," Laura said. "You have about as much power as a flea. Kind of look like one too."

"I thought we were trying to reignite the fire again," he grumbled, rubbing his temple. "You don't do that by _flaming _me."

"Don't make pathetic attempts at it, then," she said.

"That wasn't an attempt. I was correcting you on your erroneous facts."

"Noted." Laura sipped her beer. "I guess you _did_ take me out drinking. _HAH!_ Remember when you tried to buy me that bottle of Everclear? You offered the bartender a thousand bucks!"

"Not that outrageous, considering I'd just had, like, twenty shots and was blacking out," Julian said. "God, can you imagine what it's going to be like when _they_ start drinking?" he nodded to the Shrimps, who were sitting in front of the big-screen TV, mesmerized by the image of the Count from Sesame Street.

"Maybe that's the 'dark time approaching' that Emma keeps talking about," Laura said thoughtfully.

Julian grinned, then shuddered. "I just thought about them _dating._"

"What, each other?" Laura asked, her nose wrinkled.

"No, dumb—y," Julian quickly corrected the swear word he'd been about to say. Now that the Shrimps were starting to learn how to actually use words in conversation—and that Nate had started to swear in earnest—he had finally given into Laura's attempts to make him filter his language, while they tried to get Nate to forget what he'd heard them say under all the stress they had lived under. They had had a talk, regarding the quality of the Shrimp's life; perhaps spurred by the loss. And they had decided their children should have the best, most stable existence they could possibly provide.

"I mean…when they're our age. How are we going to deal?"

"We'll _deal,_" Laura said. "We always do."

"But how? Knowing they might get themselves into the mess we did. With the world the way it is now."

"Then I'll get you a shot gun, so you can stay up at night fondling it while waiting for them to return," Laura said. "I'll even get you some gun polish, so you have an excuse."

"I'm serious," Julian said, but he smiled slightly.

"I am too. I can't just pull the answers out of my-butt, right now…but we'll know what to do when the time comes." She paused. "And there's always Logan."

"You mean—" Julian looked thoughtful. "Yeah, get _him_ to handle it. I'd sure as—heck—watch my toes with _him _on my case."

"No you didn't," Laura pointed out.

"Uhh…well someone else who isn't crazy would," he said. "I have to be…I mean, I risked having my head chopped off for…well…_you?_" He grimaced.

"Ha-_rumpf,_" Laura said.

He grinned. "Hey, I've got to get in my one burn a day to keep up with your, like, ten million burns about _me._ Every hour."

"Those are just the ones I feel are good enough to say out loud," Laura said.

"I'm glad you do that. Otherwise I might decide not to get out of bed in the mornings." He hesitated, then reached over and touched her hand; she stiffened slightly, and looked at him uncertainly. He felt hurt and disappointed, but let his hand remain. He reminded himself that it would take time. And that part of every reaction Laura gave him was in response to his own, to his obvious reluctance to make the gestures.

After a while she relaxed slightly, and it wasn't so strange to touch her again.

**…**

"Oh, cut it _out,_" Laura snapped, in response to Julian's sprawling on the bed and complaining about how tired he was from travelling. "You do this every _time._ Yet when we're sitting on the couch at home, it does nothing but give you R n' R. What the eff, Keller?"

"I dunno," he said, rolling over in the king sized bed to look at her, grinning. "When I travel, I feel obligated to complain. You know, because it's like a tradition or something. My parents did it all the time."

"No wonder. What a bunch of pussies." Laura opened her suitcase on the chair.

"Whattsa 'pussies', mum?" Rachel asked, tugging on the edge of her skirt.

Julian looked at the little girl, and at Laura's expression, and tried not to laugh.

"It means, uh, someone who's a coward," Laura said. "Don't use it."

"Okay," Rachel said. She fingered the edge of Laura's skirt.

"MUM! Wann' go!" Nate said, worried. "Disney! Wann' go!" He jumped on the bed beside Julian and started bouncing up and down.

"Hang on, cowboy," Laura said. "We've got to unpack first, and get something to eat, and—"

_**"WANT!" **_the Shrimps shouted in unison. Rachel blinked, and rubbed one eye, then glared in Nate's direction.

"Yes Nate, we know—" Julian said.

"Hurr' up! Heah, I puts away!" The contents of the suitcase rose in the air.

"_Nate,_put that down—" Julian warned.

_**BAMM!**_

"…" he picked the underwear off his face and raised his eyebrows at the little boy, who was now hiding his face in Laura's skirt, afraid and embarrassed. Laura gazed at her clothing, scattered _everywhere—_all over the lighting fixtures, on doorknobs, chairs, the TV, under the bed—and rolled her eyes.

"The butler can clean this up," Julian said.

"No! You _and_ Nate, the boy you've been training to _use_ his powers, will take care of this," Laura said firmly. "I still can't believe they asked you to handle training _students." _

"This has nothing to do with my skills," Julian said defensively. "I'm like, the best teacher _ever _at telekinesis."

"If the class is called Incompetence 101," Laura grumbled. "Hop to it, boys. Rachel, want a snack?"

The girl nodded, with a pleased look. She looked suspiciously smug, having enjoyed Nate getting in trouble.

Julian looked at Nate, who was looking at the floor, pouting. He felt bad, seeing the childish enthusiasm spurned.

"Look…you take that corner. I'll get the rest. And next time, you have to be patient, okay?"

"Okay!" Nate said, excited again.

"Let's sit in this chair over here and watch," Laura murmured, guiding Rachel to the corner. "I don't fancy death by flying underwear. Normally it's impossible, but those two can make _anything_ dangerous."

**…**

Julian knocked on the door again, after waiting for a minute.

"Jim…we're going for dinner," he called through the door.

The door opened, and his brother peered out. "Are you going to be emo?"

"I've never _been _emo," Julian said. "That's always been your gig. Come on…apparently we're going to a five-star restaurant, on me. Laura's all excited, she claimed she's going to bankrupt me trying the whole desert menu. Might need help restraining her."

James blinked. "Hold on, let me grab my jacket."

The door closed again, and Julian leaned on the hallway wall. His room's door opened and Laura emerged, carrying Nate and leading Rachel by the hand.

"How's 'Riot' settling in?" Laura asked, obviously concealing laughter. She found his name to be hilarious; she'd taken the angle that Cyclops had chosen the name because the boy was obviously 'a laugh a minute'.

"He seemed okay." Julian paused. "You've really got to stop teasing him. He's not as thick-skinned as I am, and—"

"HAHAHAHA!" Laura found this hilarious. "HAHAHAHA!"

Julian gave her an annoyed glance. "What?" he asked finally.

"You're _not_ thick skinned," Laura said, grinning. "You're about as tough as an inflamed rash. Both of you."

He raised his eyebrow, and suddenly Laura's smile faded. "Well…maybe. But I meant about teasing, not—that."

"Whatever." Julian shifted. "But go easy on him. He's coming around pretty good now…and I want him to feel like family, not picked on."

"I _am_ treating him like 'family'," Laura pointed out. "If I was _nice_ to him, he'd feel ostracized, see?"

Julian blinked. "Okay then," he said, seeing her point.

The door opened, and James came out, zipping up the jacket he was wearing on top of his hoody, and turtleneck. He also was wearing thin leather gloves. He had a hat on, too, a baseball cap.

"Think this is enough?" he asked.

"Kevin called, he wants his outfit back," Laura said.

"It looks fine," Julian said. "But really…you're overdoing the covering-up. You're not as bad as...well, Kevin."

"He can only kill people if he touches their skin," James said. "After what you've seen…and knowing I can't shut it off…I could kill a _crowd_. So yeah, I don't think I'm overdoing it."

They moved down the hallway.

"How _is _Kevin?" Julian asked. "Haven't had much time to talk to him lately. Are he and Cess still…"

"Yeah," James said. He'd befriended the death touch boy, mostly for skin-tips, in a move similar to Julian's strategy for gleaning child-rearing tips from Barnell and Angel.

"Do you think he really _likes _her, or that he's with her out of convenience?" Julian asked. "I know it was convenience to begin with, but…"

"I don't talk about _feelings _with him," James pointed out. "I get enough of them already." He paused. "It's convenience. She irritates him sometimes."

"Oh." Julian suddenly realized that his brother was the perfect source of any gossip he wanted to hear about other people in the mansion.

After picking up Angel and her family, they made their way to the cars and piled in, James sitting between the Shrimps, and Angel and Barnell in their own vehicle.

"You should have rented a bigger car," James said, wrinkling his nose. "I shouldn't have to sit in the back with the kids. Why the _hell _didn't you get a limo?"

"I don't think I could ride in one anymore." Julian said, then paused. "Probably trauma. I took her in the white limo once…" He nodded to Laura.

"Ewww! That was _her?_" James asks. "That's disgusting!"

"Try carrying _those _two in your stomach, then come talk to me," Laura said to him, meaning the Shrimps, who of course looked innocent. In the rearview mirror, Laura could see Nate picking his nose. "Nate, stop it. And emo, you _are_ a kid." She paused. "Technically, we all are. Except we're the ones calling the shots here, so until you're ready to step up and assume responsibility for this mess…"

"No thanks," James said. Nate stopped, his eyes wide; he clearly thought his mother had developed eyes in the back of her head.

"So where are we going and how do we get there?" Julian asked loudly. "Whoever sits shotgun also navigates."

"Oh, _fine._" Laura pulled out the map she'd stuck in earlier. "Umm…let's see…take a left…then a right…then…oh, this weird zig-zag pattern…then five rights in a—"

"One turn at a time," Julian cut in. "You make it sound like you're reading a maze off a kid's menu."

"Well, I'm hungry," Laura said defensively. After the comment, however, she did try to pace her directions; and they managed to make it to their destination with only three wrong turns.

**…**

"I'm amazed you thought bringing _them _was a good idea," James said, nodding to the Shrimps and Tito, who now sat in booster seats at the table, occupied with coloring pictures on paper placemats with crayons. "Those kids are monsters."

"_You're _a monster," Laura said. Angel looked over the back of the next booth and stuck her tongue out at James.

Julian frowned. "They're not _that_ bad, Jim. You were way worse when you were that age. And you didn't even have powers yet."

"I bet _you _were the antichrist," Laura said derisively.

"Ha!" Angel said.

"I wasn't that bad," Julian said. "If anyone here was the antichrist, it's _you._"

"Actually, I was not," Laura said. "That didn't start until I hit puberty, remember?"

"Right," Julian said.

The food arrived; a steaming plate of seafood for Laura, a hamburger for Julian (who could now eat what he wanted at restaurants), and some sort of chicken plate for James, with fries.

"I can't believe you order a _hamburger _at a five-star restaurant," Laura said critically. "At a place renowned for its seafood, too!"

"Oh, I've had enough of seafood," Julian said calmly. "It's nice to eat what I want."

"Huh?" James asked.

"She used to make me order for her," Julian explained. "Using my plate. I'd get like a quarter of what I asked for, which I didn't want anyway. Lobster. You know I hate seafood…after that banquet, remember? You were like four, or three, I think…I was somewhere around six."

James looked amused. "That was hilarious," he said. "I still remember that."

"What?" Laura demanded.

"I ordered a lobster," Julian said. "Dad was worried…it was more than he'd planned on paying. And then they made me come up to pick which one I wanted, out of a big aquarium." He paused. "I thought they meant as a pet. I threw a huge temper tantrum when they served it to me. I had named it and everything."

"HAHAHA!" Laura was delighted. "What did you name it?"

"Claw, of course," Julian said.

"I've never heard anyone scream that loud," James said. "Dad had to literally drag him to the car. When they finally uncurled his hands, they found pieces off the carpet."

"Nate's done that before," Laura said. "I remember the time he took the tablecloth when I was trying to get him out of Applebee's."

"That was loud and messy," Julian recalled. "It started with him dumping a bowl of soup on Rach."

"That brought about the 'no-fluid' law at restaurants," Laura said grimly.

"I remember that one," Angel said. "Only time Tito wasn't the start of the trouble."

"And you claim they're not monsters," James said sarcastically.

"I never said they weren't," Julian said. "I meant, at the end of the day, they're not that bad. But yeah, they can be little demons."

"They have relatives nicknamed 'Hellion' and 'Riot'," Laura pointed out. "It's not their fault. It's obviously lousy genetics."

Julian shrugged, and grinned.

"Why do you just let her bad-mouth us like that?" James demanded.

"I learned a long time ago that nothing will shut her up," Julian said. He paused. "Also, I've sparred with her in training. Trust me…agree to anything she says. She hits like a semi."

"HAHAHA! Remember the time I gave you a black eye?" Laura seemed amused.

James stared at them.

"It was an accident," she said. "When I was recovering from the…implants. I was trying to brush a crumb off his face and I kind of broke his nose."

"This was in public, too," Julian said. "Josh took like fifteen minutes to stop laughing so he could heal me. They had to replace the couch in the Rec Room because I got my blood all over it."

"They really need a mutant with household cleaning powers," Laura said. "She or he could be called Tide. Or Vim."

"Or Oxyclean. That sounds awesome," Julian said.

"I hate you two," James said calmly, but he continued to eat and join in the conversation; Julian decided that, now, finally, he was beginning to feel more comfortable about life at the mansion. By the time the evening was over and they returned to the hotel, everyone felt more relaxed, and Julian thought that maybe Laura had been right: this break from the tension of the school was what they had needed. He didn't think so much about all that had happened in the bright, unfamiliar settings.

They lay awake for a while, on their backs, restraining from talking so that the Shrimps would fall asleep faster. Laura finally rolled over and smiled at him, slightly, with a nod; she could always tell when the Shrimps were genuinely asleep. He ran his fingers over her arms, slowly, taking his time, and for the first time in a while there was only him and her. The failures and guilt waited at the mansion, to envelop him like a foggy shroud.


	27. Disneyland 2:2 making memories

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "Disneyland" Issue 2/2 )**

**Chapter 160 : making memories  
**

* * *

Julian started as the bathroom door was almost torn off its hinges, to reveal Laura's deathly white face, full of fear and panic.

A moment later he understood why.

_**"**__**KELLER!**__**" **_She shrieked. _**"**__**HE**__** GOT**__** LOOSE!**__** NATE**__** WENT **__**DOWN**__** THE**__** HALLWAY**__**—" **_

Julian might have asked—before having experience with the Shrimps—how the boy had 'gotten loose'. He knew better, now. He knew this was a situation requiring immediate response. He stumbled out of the shower, not bothering to turn it off or to rinse the soap out of his hair; he would have forgotten a towel if Laura handed grabbed his wrist and handed it to him as he rushed past.

It was well known that in this aspect of parenting—catching a misbehaving shrimp—Julian reigned supreme. Although the Shrimps obeyed their mother unquestioningly, there had been the rare occasion on which they had 'taken control of the situation', and Laura had failed to catch them.

This seemed to be one of them.

As Julian reached the door to see Nate shoot down the hallway in a cloud of energy, screaming enthusiastically, he realized the boy had had enough, and was going to see Disneyland _now._

"Oh no you don't," he said, making a fist. Suddenly the two were locked in a mental force battle; Julian gripped the doorway. The small boy was getting stronger, and definitely putting up a fight. At the same time, Julian didn't want to hurt him. He was well aware of his own past damage record.

"Be careful!" Laura said fretfully, peering around the doorway at the borderline-toddler floating in midair.

"Holy _**FUCK**__,_" Julian said. "This is insane. I can't—" his hand tightened on the doorway, his knuckles white. "I'm going to hurt him if I—"

"_**DON**__**'**__**T!**__**"**_ Laura said, panicked.

At that moment, James's door opened, and he peered out. "What the _hell_ are you guys doing? I heard screaming—" he suddenly noticed the mass of energy right in front of him; Nate was almost glowing white. "What the freak is _that?_"

"Nate," Laura said, her voice trembling.

"Hey…Jim…" Julian said with effort. "Would you mind—"

James looked at the mass. "I'm not touching that," he said.

"Get a towel," Laura said. "Or a bedsheet, or something. Please!"

James disappeared for a few moments; then suddenly he reappeared, and flung a towel over the mass of white. Nate screeched, startled; he shot towards Julian, who barely had time to catch him.

The towel began to cry.

"Thank you," Laura said, awkwardly.

_**DING!**_The elevator at the end of the hallway opened, revealing a very wealthily-dressed older couple. They took in the sight of the half-naked and dripping Julian holding the screaming, lumpy, squirming towel (Nate); Laura, in her bra and underwear, with one eye outlined in makeup and her lipstick smeared across her cheek (as her hand had gone astray while applying it, at the moment of the escape); and James, who was dressed in about three sweaters.

The lady reached over and pressed a button on the elevator; the doors closed again.

"Oh, come on, we're not _that_ bad," Julian grumbled.

"I hate you guys." James closed his door quite firmly.

**…**

"Nate…we need to have a talk," Julian said seriously, to the boy, who was now sitting sulkily on the edge of the bed, looking at his hands. Julian was now dressed, and seated on one of the chairs. Laura stood behind him, her arms folded.

The boy looked away.

"_**NATE!**_" Laura snapped. "Look at Julian when he talks to you."

"No!" Nate said.

"That was really bad, what you just tried to pull," Julian said. "You could have gotten hurt. You could have hurt someone else."

"Don' care!" Nate said. "DISNEYLAND! Wan' see Pirates!"

Laura sucked her tongue.

"We'll see the pirates, Nate," Julian said, knowing he was going to hear about how he shouldn't have let Nate watch _Pirates __of __the __Caribbean_."But nothing is more important than safety." He paused. "If you get hurt, you can't _see_ the Pirates."

"Why?" Nate asked.

"Because you'll be hurt," Julian said. "You'll be like Casper."

"Keller—" Laura said, as Nate's face crumpled.

"_**MUM**__**—**_**"**he began to howl. The little boy was afraid of Casper, and Julian had already been berated for having allowed him to watch it.

**"**_**I**__** DON**__**' **__**WAN**__**' **__**DIE!**__**"**_ Nate wailed.

"Way to go, Keller…you've managed to convince the boy with the healing factor that he is _going __to __die._"

Julian sighed, bowed his head.

"And we don't want you to die, Nate," he said after a few moments. "If you did, we'd have no one to take to Disneyland." He paused. "Except Rachel. I guess we'd have to give it all to your sister."

Laura instantly saw Julian's brilliant strategy. _Nothing_ could make Nate want something more than hinting that his sister was getting it.

"Damn, Keller," she mumbled. Julian tried not to grin, seeing Nate's face cloud over with jealousy.

"No! Take _me!_" Nate said uncertainly.

"She'd have Tito all to herself, too," Julian said. "And your friend. You know, the one you share."

Nate's eyes widened. "But—"

"I wouldn't have to time things anymore, I guess," Laura said. "I could just let Rachel have all his toys…like the Castle."

"_**NO!**__**" **_Nate shouted. "I be good! I be good!"

"That's good to hear," Julian said seriously. He leaned over and ruffled Nate's hair. "You and Tito ready to go rescue some princesses?"

Nate just about fell off the chair in excitement. _**"**__**YES!**__**" **_he shouted.

"Oh my god, Keller. I _refuse_ to let you turn my son into a man-whore. I _refuse._"

"What?" Julian asked innocently. "Kid's got instincts. I'm not going to _discourage_ him. It's healthy." He paused, grinning. "And I can't help it if he inherited some of my moves."

"Those aren't moves. Those are pathetic cries for help."

"Yeah right. I've dated about every girl at the school."

"Pretty sure you haven't," Laura said.

"Hell yeah I have. There's…" Julian stopped to think. He opened his mouth, frowned, shut it, then opened it again. "I got you, didn't I?"

"I really don't think you can count me," Laura said skeptically. "You were _my_cry for help."

"Ouch," Julian said.

"_**TITO!**__**" **_both Shrimps suddenly said.

"Yeah, Angel and Tito are approaching the door," Laura confirmed, glancing at it.

"So I hear," Julian said. "Freakin' claw people."

Nate slipped off the chair, ran to the door and tore it open, as Angel raised her hand to knock.

"_**TITO!**_" Nate burst. "_**I**__**TWIED**__**TO**__**GO**__**BUT**__**JOO**__**STOPPED**__**ME**__**AND**__**THEN**__**HE**__**SED**__**I**__**WOULD**__**TURN**__**INTO**__**CASPER**__**AND**__**THEN**__**—**_"

"_**COOL!**_" Tito exclaimed, with a flutter of his wings.

"I love how they yell at each other when they're a foot apart," Angel murmured. "Me and bird brain heard screaming earlier…sounded like there was a good smack-down going on in the hallway. What happened?"

"He nearly escaped," Julian said grimly. "We had to towel him."

"Jeez." Angel grinned. "I would've helped, but we had our own situation. Tito stole Mike's breakfast…and started a food fight."

"Oh my _god,_" Julian said, suddenly realizing the additional complications of having so many kids: not only more mouths to feed and more trouble to supervise, but the chance for larger-scale disaster. _Organized __crime_.

"We got it cleaned up," Angel said. "Also, we're ready, whenever you guys are."

"Just got to grab the bags," Laura said. "Meet us by the cars in five minutes."

**…**

"Is it just me, or does he scream louder as we get closer?" Julian asked, leaning his elbow on the steering wheel as they sat at a traffic light. This was in response to the _**"—AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**__**—" **_emanating from the back seat, a sound which stopped only when Nate had to breathe. James was sitting between the twins, hunched over, his face squeezed into a permanent scowl and his hands clapped over his ears.

Even Rachel looked irritated. "Nett," she said, several times, but was drowned out by her brother's excitement.

"I think you should talk with him about power concealment again, before we get out," Laura said, glancing at the boy. "Last thing we need is him flying out _here._"

"You're probably right. If I can get a word in edgewise." Julian rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling little tendrils of migraine leave the knotted mass in his forehead, and reach into his eyes and down his nose.

"Green," she said. His head snapped up; seeing the light was green, he pressed down on the gas.

"This is not how I imagined spending my future," Julian said, somewhat blandly.

"Neither did I," Laura said. "Honestly, I figured I'd be the top pick in a brothel by now. Or, y'know, working for the Kingpin."

Julian paled; she grinned. "You're so gullible."

"I was being serious."

"So what _did_ you see yourself doing, around this point?"

Julian paused. "Leading an X-man team. Maybe continuing school somewhere, eventually."

"And probably screwing everyone at that school, knowing the way _you_ think," she said, her lip curling.

"Actually, no." Julian raised his eyebrows, glanced at her. "I've always seen myself as a one-woman guy."

"But—" Laura looked mildly confused.

"I see something I like, I let her know I approve. That doesn't mean I'm going to give it away just like that." He paused. "Before you came to the school…I only ever looked at—well, you know."

"—But the Cuckoos—"

"I may have embellished that," Julian said, flushing slightly.

"Oh," Laura said, a little surprised. Despite having seen from his actions what he was really like, it was unusual of him to actually admit it. She smiled slightly, and put her hand over his on the arm rest.

He smiled too.

"Can you tell me the next turn?"

"_GOD!__" _James snapped from the back. "You're a billionaire! Why can't you get GPS?"

"Because…it's more fun this way," Laura said defensively, as both herself and Julian secretly wondered why they hadn't thought of it themselves.

**…**

After a day filled with listening to screaming children, chasing runaways, stern lectures, crying, nauseating rides, treats and consequent vomit-cleanup, the two families return to the hotel to crash for the night. All the children were asleep by the time that the doors were unlocked; the four parents traded tired smiles for a moment (while James stormed straight into his room and shut the door with a solid _thud!_), then entered the rooms.

"Do you think they'll be okay in a bed like that?" Laura mouthed to Julian, who was carrying a sleeping Shrimp in each arm, having noticed that she looked tired and drawn. He nodded and headed towards the second bed, which they had pushed over against the far wall, having shoved their king-sized mattress against the window, and reinforced the locks (after Nate's near escape of earlier).

Julian laid them down carefully, watching the small, sleeping faces and feeling strange, like he always did. It was strange to see pieces of himself in miniature, and to admit to himself that those two little beings had become the only reason he and Laura had managed to keep sane during the last year.

After they finished changing the exhausted children and tucking them in, they began to prepare for bed themselves. Julian sat on the edge of the mattress and waited patiently for Laura to complete her nighttime rituals: take a shower, brush her teeth, and comb her hair.

The door opened, and he frowned, having heard none of the usual noises. Looking up with tired eyes, he took in a sight he hadn't seen in a while; Laura stood in front of him, but her clothes didn't.

She gave him a direct look. "Get in here."

Julian blinked, uncertain.

_"__Now.__" _

He wasn't one to argue.


	28. Midnight Hour 1:3 five minutes to

**A/N: **Dear Liu: Fuck you. Love, onelildustbunni. PS~ Happy holidays everyone.

* * *

**( Volume: 4 Arc: "midnight hour" Issue: 1/3 )**

**Chapter 161 : Five minutes to…**

* * *

Six days after setting out, the Kellers were back in their house, all completely exhausted. Even James was too tired to offer snarky comments; he took his suitcase meekly into his room, and collapsed in his bed, releasing a snore almost the instant his head hit the pillow.

"I don't think I could've handled that if I wasn't an X-man," Julian said, sprawled on the couch, his eyes glassy from the constant pressure in his head. "Holy shit, did he actually stop screaming long enough to fall _asleep?_"

"Keller, put a quarter in the swear jar," Laura said, craning her neck up to look at him in disapproval.

"Shrimps are in their cribs." Seeing her expression, he sighed. "Don't have change just now. How 'bout I just set them up with a billion-dollar trust fund each and cuss as much as I want?"

"That won't cut it." Laura closed her eyes, resting her head against his shoulder. "Holy _fuck. _I think this has officially overwhelmed my healing factor."

"Too bad your enemies haven't figured it out. All this money spent on expensive weaponry, when all they had to do was throw a pair of screaming toddlers in your general direction."

"Mmm." Laura sighed. "Let's go to bed. I don't want to think about our normal life till tomorrow, 'cause it sucks."

"Okay." Julian wrapped his arms around her midsection, his hands splayed on her stomach, pressing his face against her neck and breathing in her smell. She shivered in response, and he figured that was a signal to proceed. Laura got up after a few moments, took his hand and led him to their bedroom, filled with the sound of the sleeping Shrimps.

They moved quietly into the bed, and spend a few minutes reclaiming territory, more thoroughly than the other night, which had been a bit more tentative. Kisses deepened until they were both breathless, clothes were pulled off, and at a certain point, Laura, straddling his lap, reached for a bedside drawer.

Julian hesitated, then also reached out and caught her wrist. She looked down at him questioningly; her eyes widened and she suddenly seemed uncertain, but she withdrew her hand empty, having read his message clearly.

In the following minutes, neither noticed the tiny hitch—a hiccup—in the breathing of both of the Shrimps. At precisely midnight.

**…**

"That's weird," Laura said, yawning and stretching; she had just woken to the warm and secure feeling of being held in warm, strong arms. She looked much rosier and happier in the soft morning light; Julian wondered briefly if this was more than just happiness, and what he'd just signed himself up for.

"What?" he asked.

"Shrimps aren't raising hell yet." Laura glanced at the wall clock. "It's nine AM, Keller. Normally they're—"

A small moan hit both their ears, from Nate's crib. Laura was out of bed before Julian could even think about what had just happened. He joined her at the side of the crib (after sliding on boxers, the covers being wrapped around Laura's midsection like a toga) and watched as she reached in, her face full of concern.

"What's wrong, Nate?" she asked.

"Don' feel good." Nate's head appeared over the edge of the crib. "Hurts."

His face is flushed.

"Maybe they got a cold at Disneyland?" Julian suggested. "That place is a festering germ-trap. I can't wait to find out what _I_ got."

"He's got a _healing factor, _Keller," Laura said, Nate now in her arms. She touched her forehead, and shrieked.

"What?" Julian is alarmed.

"_**FEEL **_his forehead!" Laura gasped, grabbing his hand and forcing it to touch the boy's brow. It was surprisingly hot with fever.

"Joooo…" Rachel called from the other crib. He turned, to see the little girl's face poking over the edge—flushed, in a similar fashion.

"_**DO SOMETHING!" **_Laura snapped, in a panic.

"Wha—they're not the first kids to have a fever, Laura! Just chill, okay? We'll clean up and head to the—"

_**"NOW!" **_Laura roared, making Julian and both Shrimps wince.

He knew she wouldn't let up, and sighed. "Let me at least get dressed, jeez."

**…**

"_**WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY SON?" **_Laura thundered.

Julian, Dr. McCoy, and Logan—along with the Shrimps—winced at the unexpected volume of voice coming from the young woman. It was almost as if she were using a bullhorn to reach people across a large football stadium.

"Please, Laura, calm down," Dr. McCoy said. "It's just a fever and some achy joints…hardly fatal."

_**"FATAL?" **_Laura was screaming now.

"_**LAURA!**_" Logan snapped. "Keep it down, half-pint! Yer scarin' yer own children."

She paused at this, and blinked, then took a deep breath. "Okay. What the hell is going on here? Why are they sick? They _can't _be—they have my healing!"

"I'm not certain yet," Dr. McCoy said. "I will take some blood samples, and a few scans, if the littlest Kellers could remain with me. Afterward, I will settle down to finding out exactly why these little tots are feeling so yucky." The last part was said to the Shrimps, who were sitting on a metal gurney, their legs dangling over the edge.

Laura's claws pop; _Snkkt! _

"Well I need to know _now!_"

"That's great, Laura," Julian said, in a dry tone. "We're going home. Thanks, Dr. McCoy."

"A pleasure as usual." Dr. McCoy smiled at the Shrimps. "I don't suppose anyone has use for these yoyos." Pulling his paws out of his pockets, he dangled the toys by their strings, then flipped them around and twirled the strings together in an impressive trick.

The Shrimps were clearly fascinated.

"_**WANT!**_" they yelped together, frantically.

"How the heck do you do that, Dr. McCoy?" Julian asked, his forehead wrinkled. "Do you always keep toys in your pockets?"

"No," Dr. McCoy says, smiling as he gives each Shrimp a sparkly yoyo.

"But…we didn't tell you that we were coming," Julian persists.

"Emma and I have a deal. She alerts me whenever these darling children of yours are headed this way for a visit, and I split my toy store purchases with her."

"_OH,_" Laura said. "That makes sense. I was totally confused when she started handing out goodies too…she just doesn't seem like the type to—"

"To what?"

All heads turned towards Emma Frost, who was now standing in the doorway. Her eyebrows were raised in delicate arches as she waited for Laura to complete her sentence.

"Well, to go toy shopping," Julian offered. "I was a little stumped by that myself."

"Nonsense. I am delighted at the thought of spending hour upon hour trolling through brightly colored plastics, plush playthings and simple educational tools," Emma said, not sounding enthused at all. "My only complaints lie in the loud noises and that mysterious—"

"Sticky substance," Laura cut in. "We know _all_ about that."

Logan grunted. "Yeah, what the hell _is_ that shit? It's all over my TV. I spent a bit sniffin' it, till Kitty popped in and asked me what on earth I was doin'."

"I've noticed it in my office," Emma said. "On my pens, and anywhere the twins have been."

The group gazed at the Shrimps.

"Bring me one of your pens, Emma," Dr. McCoy suggested. "I could analyze the substance under a microscope."

"I'm honestly afraid to find out what it is," Julian said. "I've been getting by with the idea that it's like a slug trail, only a million times grosser."

"Urrr," Emma Frost said, with a slight shudder. "Perhaps Mr. Keller is correct. Let's concentrate on the wellbeing of the two patients, for now."

**…**

"Keller…I don't like this," Laura said.

She was pacing back and forth in the kitchen, while Julian sat at the table, rubbing his face. The Shrimps were with Dr. McCoy and Emma Frost, who had barely managed to pry the overprotective mother away.

"Relax," he said. "It's just a cold."

"No it isn't!" Laura snapped. "I have a really, _really_ bad feeling about this!"

"Laura, they're kids. Kids get sick _all the time. _So what if they have a healing factor? Maybe they just couldn't handle the awesomeness that is Disneyland Germs. More than a couple million people go there every _day…_you honestly think they're not going to pick something up?"

Laura stopped pacing, ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe you're right. Oh—I don't _know, _Keller! I just feel so keyed up and—"

"Worried, 'coz they're your babies," Julian finished for her. "Just try to relax. They'll be better in no time. By the way, speaking of babies…?" he trailed off, giving her a questioning look.

Laura raised her eyebrow, then her expression changed. "OH! _THAT!_"

"Yeah, _that,_" Julian said, a little miffed that she could have forgotten so easily. "Glad to know it's really important to you."

She blushed slightly. "Give me a break, Keller. I'm busy keeping the _first_ ones alive. And besides…we're not going to find that out for a bit."

"Oh." Julian felt uneasy. Another period of waiting to find out whether his life was more over than it already was (a thought that confused him immensely). In reality he didn't really want to talk about it, but he had been right in thinking this was a subject that could distract Laura. She headed to the table and took a seat, now smiling slightly, distracted by the thought.

"We could try again," she said suddenly. "You know, later, when the Shrimps are home and asleep. I mean…the more the better, right?"

"Right," Julian said. Suddenly he realized what she was referring to, and a new possibility opens up to him: she probably would now want to be intimate as often as was possible. He shifted slightly. Could he scrape up the courage to do it again? Now that the thought that 'maybe the first time didn't do it' has struck him?

He looked at Laura's smile—something that has only begun to appear again very recently—and decided he damn well could. If that was all it would take to make her happy, then he would give it his all.

"No one's home right now," he pointed out. "Jim's in class."

"Keller!" Laura sounded outraged. "The Shrimps—"

"Are in the best of hands." He reached over and put his hand on hers; she looked down at their fingers uncertainly. "Maybe the distraction will help."

"I…" Laura hesitated, then her eyes slid to the table. Almost instantly Julian knew what she was thinking (maybe he _was_ telepathic after all), and he pushed back his chair, suddenly determined to make it happen.

**…**

"I forgot that could feel so good," Laura said, leaning on the doorframe, her cheeks still flushed slightly.

"I never forget," Julian replied, staring at himself in the mirror. A moment later, a green wave passed over his face, and his five-o-clock shadow evaporated, leaving his skin as smooth as if it had never occupied the space. "Pity about the chair, though. And the table."

Laura bit her lip. "Do you think anyone will notice?"

They were referring to the chair that had been totaled during one escapade. In addition, Laura had popped her claws and rammed her fists into the table top, momentarily unconcerned.

"Jim might notice when he tries to sit down on it. The holes….just put a tablecloth on, and like a basket or something."

Laura moved forward, as he turned toward the shower, and put her fingertips lightly on his chest. "Thanks," she said softly.

"For what? The sperm?" Julian grinned. "I like to donate. Giving makes me feel good. This warm glowy feeling, surprisingly similar to c—"

"Fuck off," Laura said, but she also looked amused. "I meant everything. I know you're not a hundred percent on having another one…but you know I am, so you do it. You've always given me what I needed, when I needed it."

Julian smiled for a moment, something he hadn't done in a while, either. He'd been unconsciously wanting to hear this for a long time—this approval that he was doing the right thing.

"Let's clean up," he said, taking her gently by the wrist and guiding her towards the shower, his mood much, much lighter than it had been in Dr. McCoy's office.


	29. Midnight Hour 2:3 the clock strikes

******____****ANNOUNCEMENT: **Two new stories-_Like a Boss: Tainted Love_ and _We're in This Together Now, _along with the update wave! Enjoy! :o)

* * *

**Volume: 4 Arc: "midnight hour"Issue: 2/3 )**

**Chapter 162 : the clock strikes**

* * *

"Nate, honey, please…you need to eat."

Laura was sitting by her son, who was in his almost-too-small booster seat. She held a spoon to his mouth; purple shadows encircled her eyes, and she looked drawn. Rachel sat in a seat opposite Nate, also refusing to eat.

Both Shrimps were flushed with fever, and seemed almost delirious. Their glazed eyes registered nothing in their environment.

"Bedtime, Laura," Julian said, laying his hand on her shoulder. "I've got it from here."

"But—" she looked up at him pleadingly. She hadn't slept in three days, and had refused to eat as well, anxious over the wellbeing of the Shrimps.

"No buts." Julian paused. "Don't forget that you need to take care of yourself right now."

Laura looked doubtful for a moment. "But—"

"Go to bed. I'll stay with them."

Finally she got up, her shoulders slumped and her head hung. She shuffled to the doorway, and paused. "I don't think I am, yet."

"Well, you better keep yourself in good shape, then," Julian said. "Unless you've changed your mind."

Laura promptly disappeared, and he took her seat, fixing his eyes grimly on the Shrimps. He was beginning to believe that Laura's original premonition was correct. This wasn't just a flu. This was…something else.

Dr. McCoy hadn't found anything yet. The only abnormal results he could find in his scans was that the metal deposits the children had possessed in their anatomy was now moving around. Separating from a clumped mass into tiny flecks about the size of large cells.

He had no idea why, though.

After a while of trying to feed both Shrimps—with no success—Julian held his face in his hands, pleading with a god he didn't believe in that nothing was going to go more wrong. Laura couldn't handle anything happening to the Shrimps, and he doubted if he could, either.

**…**

Hank McCoy leaned over the microscope, ignoring the ache in his shoulders and neck. He'd been doing so for the past eight hours, but had not noticed the time pass, his attention solely on his instrument.

Or, rather, the drop of blood on the slide beneath the lens.

Hank couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Under his lens, magnified by ten million, was a small, metal, flea-like creature, curled around a white blood cell, its incisors deep in the surface of the membrane of the cell. He watched as the cell began to change, become shiny in appearance.

"Oh my stars and fucking garters," he murmured, his paws clenching around the base of the microscope.

**…**

Julian didn't know what time it was when he suddenly raised his head from his arms, having fallen into a heavy, dreamless sleep. He blinked, and realized he was looking into eyes. Nate's eyes.

But not Nate's eyes.

"Wha—"

_**SNKTT!**_

In a few heartbeats, the half human, half metal creature on the table was at his throat. He barely had time to shove it away with his mind when he was hit lower. _**RRIIIPP! **_right through his shirt, his skin and muscles, his guts. He stared down at another of the strange creatures, its hands pulling out his insides.

"…urr…" he said, feeling weak. He slid off the chair and hit the ground with a wet _**SKA-LISSSHHH **_noise.

"_KELLER?_" Laura's voice, from the bedroom, sounding faraway. The hybrid creatures both jerked their heads around; he felt sick. Why did she have to…just then…

His eyes slid shut, and he started to float away.

_**"JULIAN!" **_Laura's scream ripped through the air, and his eyes opened a crack. He saw her rushing towards him, her hair flying like a war banner, her claws extended; he couldn't really hear what was happening, but watched in fascination as her fist plowed through one creature, fighting it off him. It reared back, the wound to its front sealing almost instantly.

The other creature stopped its advance, seeming uncertain; it eyed Laura, and Julian saw its mouth form the word: _Mum? _

"….fuck…" he said, in a small voice, realizing that the creature was Nate. Laura looked staggered; the creatures suddenly and swiftly hurtled towards the door. The wood was torn out of their path as though it was nothing, and Laura froze, not knowing what to do next. Attend to Julian or pursue her children?

"…L-laura…" he tried to sit up. This seemed to clear her mind; she pressed him down. "Don't move. Elixir—" she choked up, then began to scream something.

Julian saw James out of the corner of his eye, looking pale and also shouting. He passed out shortly after his brother exited the house in a run. Laura knelt in the puddle of blood, her hands shaking and hovering over his intestines, uncertain of what to do.

**…**

"—_**URRRRRRR—" **_Julian next sat up, gasping for air, in the infirmary, as Josh pulled his golden fingers away.

Laura was in the corner of the room, her hands on her throat. She looked as if she might be sick.

"—had us worried there," Josh was saying. "For a minute, you weren't responding to my heals. Thought you might have been too far gone—sepsis was setting in, and—"

"Nate," Julian interrupted. "And Rachel. They did this."

"I am aware." Emma Frost was also in the room, and she looked serious. "The school is on full alarm. They are—"

Laura made a strange noise. Logan, beside her, put his hand on her shoulder.

"Easy," he said.

"—sleeper agents," Emma continued, looking strained. "Their imbedded command is the same as can be found in Omega Prime Sentinels—"

"Sentinels?" Julian asked weakly.

"D-doctor McCoy says—" _Snkkt, _Laura's claws popping. "He said they're…"

"About an hour ago, I made a discovery," Dr. McCoy said. "A nano sentinel, converting a normal white blood cell into a micro nano bot production facility. It would seem that this is the purpose of the metal deposits in the twins' bodies." He pauses. "They are synthesizing an organic form of Adamantium."

"But—" Julian rubbed his face. "Is this a secondary mutation? Or—"

Dr. McCoy looked down. "I believe…that this is why the twins exist in the first place."

Silence.

"You mean—" Julian suddenly had a revelation, a horrible one.

"Brood parasiticism," Emma Frost murmured. "Like Cuckoos. The Facility that kidnapped you created their weapons—"

"And implanted them in Laura, trusting that she would raise them as her own," Dr. McCoy said grimly. "Just like she did."

"But—" Laura raised her head, glaring at Dr. McCoy. "They're my children now. We have to _find _them, we have to—"

"We are doing our best, Laura," Emma said softly. "The Cuckoos—my girls—are in Cerebra right now, searching. It won't be easy, seeing as the twins have withdrawn entirely from the psychic network."

"_**WHAT?**_" Laura shouted.

"Easy, Laura…easy," Logan said.

"Are they—" Julian asked.

"They are not dead. They have incredibly powerful mental abilities," Emma said. "Enough to completely erase their presence from Cerebra. I have not seen anyone that could do this before."

"God," Julian said. He rubbed his forehead; Emma traded significant looks with Dr. McCoy, who moved to a sink/cabinet combination. After a moment, he returned with a cup of water and a few pills in his hand.

Julian took them gratefully. He felt like his skull was about to cleave down the middle.

"But when we find them—" Laura said suddenly, obviously in shock—"They'll be okay, right? We can erase all the Sentinel stuff."

Silence.

Laura turned absolutely white, wrenched Logan's hand off of her shoulder, and tore out of the room, a high-pitched note hanging in the air behind her. Julian leaned against the counter in a sagging motion, as the full implication hit him.

"I'm so sorry—" Emma Frost began, her usually cold features softening.

_**"DON'T FUCKING SAY THAT!" **_Julian burst, and the energy he'd been struggling to keep in came out, demolishing the entire lab around him in an explosion of glass, twisting metal, and snapping bones. He floated in the middle of a smoking crater for a moment, then he was gone, his image flickering behind him as he moved faster than the light around him.

"Oh my—" Dr. McCoy said, sitting up and adjusting his glasses.

The woman-shaped diamond beside him nodded. "I sensed it coming, but I couldn't find it in me to stop him. Are you hurt, Henry?"

"Nothing life-threatening." Dr. McCoy looked around. "Sadly, one could not say that for my poor lab."

"I'm sure money will fix it just fine." Emma paused. "Would you like some?"

"I _was_ planning to get a new microscope anyway," he replied thoughtfully.

**…**

Julian caught up with Laura at the school gates, moments later. He stopped, suddenly uncertain, seeing her lost, vacant look.

She sank to her knees in the middle of the driveway.

"The trail stops here," she said, her voice empty. "They…they just disappeared. Like they stepped off the face of the earth."

He floated in the air, silent, and knew that this was the final blow. There would be no chance of Laura ever feeling good again. It was worse than the first child they had lost; without the Shrimps to draw her out of her shell…

**…**

"_**-KILL YOU!" **_Laura roared. Her hair was disheveled and tangled; her face blotchy and her eyes raw and red from no sleep and constant tears.

"Darling, _please—_" Emma Frost laid her hand on the young woman's shoulder, only to have it knocked away.

Julian watched from a chair in the corner of the room, still silent. There was no other furniture present-nothing but walls and a floor. And Laura, in restraints. Still trying to fight. Still struggling and straining against the bonds.

It had been two weeks since the Shrimps had disappeared off the face of the earth, and which each elapsing day, the likelihood of finding them in a shape that could be rehabilitated seemed to decrease. Emma and the Cuckoos had theorized-four days ago-that the twins had ceased to use organic brain cells to think. This would effectively take them off the psychic roadmap, she had explained. And then Laura had had a breakdown and had tried to kill the messengers.

She hadn't come out of it.

_**"GOING TO-" **_Laura started to shout again.

_/SLEEP/ _Emma commanded. The girl toppled over, her eyes sliding shut.

She turned to Julian in the corner.

"I'm afraid there's..." her lips kept moving as she spoke, but he couldn't hear her anymore. All he could hear was his own thoughts-his own voice, calm and collected.

_This can't be it._

You know what you have to do.

Julian got to his feet, in a surprisingly fluid movement since he hadn't slept in more than a hundred and twenty hours. He headed for the door, now unaware that Emma was trying to stop him-and somehow failing.

_You know what you have to do._

**...**

He now stood at the door of the dark laboratory room, looking at a large tube sitting on a table. It was filled with a thick, glowing green gas, constantly shifting and shimmering. The black base at the bottom of the tube bore a brass nameplate, with two words. A name.

_Quentin Quire. _

"Quire, I need your help," Julian said.

The mist shape-shifted to form features: Quentin's face. _Hello?_

"Yeah you, dumbass. I'm going to put you together again...and you're going to help me get my kids back. Deal?"

Quire watched him, with none-existent eyeballs. _Body? _

"Yeah." Julian shifted, looked around the room. "First, I need you to tell me where the hell I can get some of that shit you were on."

The mist broke apart in a kind of protest, then reformed. _No!_

"It's the only way." He paused. "Do you want to be human again or not?"

A few moments passed, and the features in the mist bobbed up and down rapidly. A picture formed in Julian's mind, and he turned and abruptly left the laboratory room. The mist remained in the vague shape of a face for a few moments afterward, watching him go.

Then the eyes rolled, and the gas billowed against the edges of the tube, as the face dissolved.

**...**

"I've lost control of Hellion," Emma announced, her eyes on Scott, the length of the metal meeting table away. They were sitting in the ready room, all of the X-men-including the new ones-in uniform, their features set in grim expressions. Wolverine in particular looked exhausted, his dark hair more rumpled than usual and his hard, chiseled features especially haggard and unshaven.

Cyclops ran a hand through his hair. "This can't be good. The Cuckoos-"

"Are unable to reach him," Emma said. She pursed her lips. "I haven't the faintest clue of where he is...but I believe he is going to try something drastic."

Sofia looked down. "I knew this was coming," she said, her voice quiet.

No one spoke for a few moments.

"Alright...we should all know the drill by now," Cyclops said. "If there's any hint of the Phoenix...shoot to kill."

More silence.

"Teams are as follows," he continued. "Wolverine, Kitty, Tempest..."

**...**

Julian came to his senses with an inhaler in his hands, labeled with a big red X. _Kick. _The drug that would increase his powers times five, with one breath.

He shifted, staring at the object uncertainly, not paying attention to his surroundings-the middle of what appeared to be a warzone, but had been a warehouse when he had entered. Bodies are everywhere-strewn at haphazard angles on the edges of crates, piled on the floor, some hanging from the rafters, machine guns still hanging from straps around their torsos.

Nothing had touched Julian, who was standing in an almost opaque bubble of green force field.

He moved his fingers, his lips parting, and he swallowed. _No going back, _his mind told him. _This is where the road leads. Take it. _

Still, he hesitated.

He thought of the Shrimps, and the way they had run out of the house. The confused look on the Nate-creature's face when it had spoken to Laura.

And then there was Laura, currently sitting in the corner of a small room in the sub-basement, rocking back and forth. In restraints.

His expression darkened, and he shoved the inhaler into his mouth, then depressed the plunger once, twice, three times...four times...


End file.
